EL CHAPO - Mexican drug lord

                    Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka "El Chapo"

 Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka "El Chapo," is a Mexican drug lord who was head of the Sinaloa cartel, the world's most powerful drug-trafficking organization.

Who Is 'El Chapo?'

Joaquín Guzmán Loera entered the drug trade as a teenager. Nicknamed "El Chapo" (or "Shorty" for his 5'6" height) he founded the Sinaloa cartel in 1989, over time building it into an immensely profitable global drug-trafficking operation. Known for his violent actions and powerful influence, Guzmán successfully orchestrated daring escapes from maximum-security prisons in his home country. One such escape came in July 2015, although he was recaptured the following January in the Mexican city of Los Mochis. Extradited to New York City to stand trial, the drug lord was convicted of a slew of charges and sentenced to life in prison in 2019.

Early Years:

Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera was born in the rural Mexican town of Badiraguato. The date of his birth is believed to be April 4, 1957, according to Time magazine, although other outlets list December 25, 1954, as his birthday. Guzmán’s childhood was shaped by his family’s poverty and his abusive father, a violent man who was in the drug trade.

By his teens, Guzmán had been kicked out of the family home and was forced to make his own way. With little schooling in his background, he eventually found himself following his father's path, growing marijuana for small amounts of cash.

Rise to Power:

By the late 1970s, Guzmán had proven his value in the narcotics business and begun working with another rising young dealer named Héctor Luis Palma Salazar. Guzmán oversaw the movement of drugs from his home district of Sinaloa, a crucial drug trafficking area on the western end of Mexico where narcotics flowed north to coastal cities and into the United States.

By his late 20s, the quiet but savvy Guzmán was supervising logistics for another drug kingpin, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, founder of the Guadalajara cartel. Guzmán kept a low profile, but when his boss was eventually arrested for the 1985 murder of an American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, he quickly emerged as one of the new faces of the Mexican drug world.

Sinaloa Drug Cartel:

Inheriting some of his former boss’ territory, Guzmán founded his own cartel, known as Sinaloa, in 1989. By the early 1990s, Guzmán was on the radar of the DEA and FBI and was considered one of Mexico's most powerful and dangerous drug traffickers.

As the power of the Colombian drug cartels like Medellin and Cali began to wane, Sinaloa was among the Mexican organizations filling the void. Under Guzmán’s direction, it took control of the cocaine trade extending from South America to the United States.

Part of the success stemmed from Sinaloa’s creative smuggling methods, most notably a series of air-conditioned tunnels that ran under the Mexican-U.S. border. Another method involved hiding cocaine powder inside fire extinguishers and cans that were labeled “chili peppers.”

In addition to cocaine, Sinaloa trafficked heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into the U.S. and beyond. Eventually, the cartel’s tentacles touched five continents and grew to be the biggest drug operation in the world. 

Guzmán coupled that success with serious muscle. He established gangs with names such as “Los Chachos,” "Los Texas,” “Los Lobos” and “Los Negros” to protect his empire. Over the years, Guzmán’s men have been accused of committing more than 1,000 murders throughout Mexico, the casualties including both incompetent henchmen and rival bosses.

Arrests and Escapes:

First arrest: 1993

Guzmán was captured for the first time in Guatemala on 9 June 1993, extradited to Mexico and sentenced to 20 years, nine months in prison on charges of drug trafficking, criminal association and bribery. He was jailed at Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1. On 22 November 1995, he was transferred to another maximum security prison, Federal Center for Social Rehabilitation No. 2 (also known as "Puente Grande") in Jalisco, after being convicted of three crimes: possession of firearms, drug trafficking and the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo (the charge would later be dismissed by another judge). He had been tried and sentenced inside the federal prison on the outskirts of Almoloya de Juárez, Mexico State.

While he was in prison, Guzmán's drug empire and cartel continued to operate unabated, run by his brother, Arturo Guzmán Loera, known as El Pollo, with Guzmán himself still considered a major international drug trafficker by Mexico and the U.S. even while he was behind bars. Associates brought him suitcases of cash to bribe prison workers and allow the drug lord to maintain his opulent lifestyle even in prison, with prison guards acting like his servants. He met his longtime mistress and later Sinaloa associate, former police officer Zulema Hernández, while in prison, where she was serving time for armed robbery. Hernández later controlled Sinaloa's expansion into Mexico City, but in 2008 her body was found in a trunk, carved with multiple Zs, signifying Los Zetas, Sinaloa's archrivals.

First escape: 2001:

While still in prison in Mexico, Guzmán was indicted in San Diego on U.S. charges of money laundering and importing tons of cocaine into California, along with his Sinaloa attorney Humberto Loya-Castro, or Licenciado Perez ("Lawyer Perez"), who was charged with bribing Mexican officials on Sinaloa's behalf and making sure that any cartel members arrested were released from custody. After a ruling by the Supreme Court of Mexico made extradition between Mexico and the United States easier, Guzmán bribed guards to aid his escape. On 19 January 2001, Francisco "El Chito" Camberos Rivera, a prison guard, opened Guzmán's electronically operated cell door, and Guzmán got into a laundry cart that maintenance worker Javier Camberos rolled through several doors and eventually out the front door. He was then transported in the trunk of a car driven by Camberos out of the town. At a petrol station, Camberos went inside, but when he came back, Guzmán was gone on foot into the night. According to officials, 78 people have been implicated in his escape plan. Camberos is in prison for his assistance in the escape.

The police say Guzmán carefully masterminded his escape plan, wielding influence over almost everyone in the prison, including the facility's director, who is now in prison for aiding in the escape. One prison guard who came forward to report the situation at the prison disappeared 7 years later, and was presumed to have been killed on the orders of Guzmán.Guzmán allegedly had the prison guards on his payroll, smuggled contraband into the prison and received preferential treatment from the staff. In addition to the prison-employee accomplices, police in Jalisco were paid off to ensure he had at least 24 hours to get out of the state and stay ahead of the military manhunt. The story told to the guards being bribed not to search the laundry cart was that Guzmán was smuggling gold, ostensibly extracted from rock at the inmate workshop, out of the prison. The escape allegedly cost Guzmán $2.5 million.

Manhunt: 2001–2014

Mexican cartel wars

Main article: Mexican Drug War

Drug-war related murders in Mexico, 2006–2011

Since his 2001 escape from prison, Guzmán had wanted to control the Ciudad Juárez crossing points, which were in the hands of the Carrillo Fuentes family of the Juárez Cartel.Despite a high degree of mistrust between the two organizations, the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels had a working agreement at the time. Guzmán convened a meeting in Monterrey with Ismael Zambada García ("El Mayo"), Juan José Esparragoza Moreno ("El Azul") and Arturo Beltrán Leyva. In this meeting, they discussed killing Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, who was in charge of the Juárez Cartel at the time. On 11 September 2004, Rodolfo, his wife and two young children were visiting a Culiacán shopping mall. While leaving the mall, escorted by police commander Pedro Pérez López, the family was ambushed by members of Los Negros, assassins for the Sinaloa Cartel. Rodolfo and his wife were killed; the policeman survived.

The city was no longer controlled only by the Carrillo Fuentes family. Instead, the city found itself as the front line in the Mexican Drug War and would see homicides skyrocket as rival cartels fought for control. With this act, Guzmán was the first to break the nonaggression "pact" the major cartels had agreed to, setting in motion the fighting between cartels for drug routes that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since December 2006.

When Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006, he announced a crackdown on cartels by the Mexican military to stem the increasing violence. After four years, the additional efforts had not slowed the flow of drugs or the killings tied to the drug war. Of the 53,000 arrests made as of 2010, only 1,000 involved associates of the Sinaloa Cartel, which led to suspicions that Calderón was intentionally allowing Sinaloa to win the drug war, a charge Calderón denied in advertisements in Mexican newspapers, pointing to his administration's killing of top Sinaloa deputy "Nacho" Coronel as evidence. Sinaloa's rival cartels saw their leaders killed and syndicates dismantled by the crackdown, but the Sinaloa gang was relatively unaffected and took over the rival gangs' territories, including the coveted Ciudad Juárez-El Paso corridor, in the wake of the power shifts.

Conflict with Beltrán Leyva Cartel:

Guzmán's lieutenant Alfredo Beltrán Leyva (arrested)

A Newsweek investigation alleges that one of Guzmán's techniques for maintaining his dominance among cartels included giving information to the DEA and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that led to the arrests of his enemies in the Juárez Cartel, in addition to information that led to the arrests of some of the top Sinaloa leaders. The arrests were speculated by some to have been part of a deal Guzmán struck with Calderón and the DEA, in which he intentionally gave up some of his purported Sinaloa colleagues to U.S. agents in exchange for immunity from prosecution, while perpetuating the idea that the Calderón government was heavily pursuing his organization during the cartel crackdown.

This became a key factor influencing the break between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva brothers, five brothers who served as Guzmán's top lieutenants, primarily working for the cartel in the northern region of Sinaloa. Sinaloa lawyer Loya-Castro, who like Guzmán had been wanted on federal charges in the United States since 1993, voluntarily approached the DEA offering them information in 1998, eventually signing paperwork as a formal informant in 2005, and his U.S. indictment was thrown out in 2008. Loya-Castro's leaks to the DEA led to the dismantling of the Tijuana Cartel, as well as the Mexican Army's arrest of Guzmán's lieutenant and the top commander of the Beltrán Leyva organization, Alfredo Beltrán Leyva (also known as El Mochomo, or "Desert Ant"), in Culiacán in January 2008, with Guzmán believed to have given up El Mochomo for various reasons. Guzmán had expressed concerns with Alfredo Beltrán's lifestyle and high-profile actions for some time before his arrest. After El Mochomo's arrest, authorities said he was in charge of two hit squads, money laundering, transporting drugs and bribing officials.

That high-profile arrest was followed by the arrest of 11 Beltrán Leyva hit squad members in Mexico City, with police noting that the arrests were the first evidence that Sinaloa had expanded into the capital city. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza called the arrests a "significant victory" in the drug war. With Alfredo in custody, his brother Arturo Beltrán Leyva took over as the brothers' top commander, but he was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines the next year.

Whether Guzmán was responsible for Alfredo Beltrán's arrest is not known. However, the Beltrán Leyvas and their allies suspected he was behind it, and after Alfredo Beltrán's arrest, a formal "war" was declared. An attempt on the life of cartel head Zambada's son Vicente Zambada Niebla (El Vincentillo) was made only hours after the declaration. Dozens of killings followed in retaliation for that attempt. The Beltrán Leyva brothers ordered the assassination of Guzmán's son, Édgar Guzmán López, on 8 May 2008, in Culiacán, which brought massive retaliation from Guzmán. They were also in conflict over the allegiance of the Flores brothers, Margarito and Pedro, leaders of a major, highly lucrative cell in Chicago responsible for distributing over two tons of cocaine every month. The Mexican military claims that Guzmán and the Beltrán Leyva brothers were at odds over Guzmán's relationship with the Valencia brothers in Michoacán.

Following the killing of Guzmán's son Édgar, violence increased. From 8 May through the end of the month, over 116 people were murdered in Culiacán, 26 of them police officers. In June 2008, over 128 were killed; in July, 143 were slain. An additional deployment of 2,000 troops to the area failed to stop the turf war. The wave of violence spread to other cities such as Guamúchil, Guasave and Mazatlán.

However, the Beltrán Leyva brothers were involved in some double-dealing of their own. Arturo and Alfredo had met with leading members of Los Zetas in Cuernavaca, where they agreed to form an alliance to fill the power vacuum. They would not necessarily go after the main strongholds, such as the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartel; instead, they would seek control of southern states like Guerrero (where the Beltrán Leyvas already had a big stake), Oaxaca, Yucatán and Quintana Roo. They worked their way into the center of the country, where no single group had control. The Beltrán Leyva organization allied with the Gulf Cartel and its hit squad Los Zetas against Sinaloa.

The split was officially recognized by the U.S. government on 30 May 2008. On that day, it recognized the Beltrán Leyva brothers as leaders of their own cartel. President George W. Bush designated Marcos Arturo Beltrán Leyva and the Beltrán Leyva Organization as subject to sanction under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act ("Kingpin Act"), which prohibits people and corporations in the U.S. from conducting businesses with them and freezes their U.S. assets.

First manhunt:

Main article: Manhunt of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán

Guzmán was known among drug lords for his longevity and evasion of authorities, assisted by alleged bribes to federal, state and local Mexican officials. Despite the progress made in arresting others in the aftermath of Guzmán's escape, including a handful of his foremost logistics and security men, the huge military and federal police manhunt failed to capture Guzmán for years. In the years between his escape and capture, he was Mexico's most-wanted man. His elusiveness from law enforcement made him a near-legendary figure in Mexico's narcotics folklore; stories abounded that Guzmán sometimes strolled into restaurants, his bodyguards confiscating peoples' cellphones, he ate his meal, and then left after paying everyone's tabRumors circulated of Guzmán being seen in different parts of Mexico and abroad. For more than thirteen years, Mexican security forces coordinated many operations to re-arrest him, but their efforts were largely in vain as Guzmán appeared to be steps ahead from his captors.

Although his whereabouts were unknown, the authorities thought that he was likely hiding in the "Golden Triangle" (Spanish: Triángulo Dorado), an area that encompasses parts of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua in the Sierra Madre region. The region is a major producer of marijuana and opium poppies in Mexico, and its remoteness from the urban areas makes it an attractive territory for the production of synthetic drugs in clandestine laboratories and for its mountains that offer potential hideouts. Guzmán reportedly commanded a sophisticated security circle of at least 300 informants and gunmen resembling the manpower equivalent to those of a head of state. His inner circle would help him move around through several isolated ranches in the mountainous area to avoid capture. He usually escaped from law enforcement using armored cars, aircraft, and all-terrain vehicles, and was known to employ sophisticated communications gadgetry and counterespionage practices. Since many of these locations in the Golden Triangle are only accessible via single-track dirt roads, local residents easily detected the arrival of law enforcement or any outsiders. Their distrust towards non-residents and their aversion towards the government, alongside a combination of bribery and intimidation, helped keep the locals loyal to Guzmán and the Sinaloa Cartel in the area. According to law enforcement intelligence, attempting to have launched an attack to capture Guzmán by air would have had similar results; his security circle would have warned him of the presence of an aircraft 10 minutes away from Guzmán's location, giving him ample time to escape the scene and avoid arrest. In addition, his gunmen reportedly carried surface-to-air missiles that may bring down aircraft in the area.

Second arrest: 2014

Although Guzmán had hidden for long periods in remote areas of the Sierra Madre mountains without being captured, the arrested members of his security team told the military he had begun venturing out to Culiacán and the beach town of Mazatlán. A week before he was caught, Guzmán and Zambada were reported to have attended a family reunion in Sinaloa. On 16 February 2014, the Mexican military followed the bodyguards' tips to Guzmán's former wife's house, but they had trouble ramming the steel-reinforced front door, which allowed Guzmán to escape through a system of secret tunnels that connected six houses, eventually moving south to Mazatlán. He had planned to stay a few days in Mazatlán to see his twin baby daughters before retreating to the mountains.

On 22 February 2014, at around 6:40 AM, Mexican authorities arrested Guzmán at a hotel in a beachfront area in Mazatlán, following an operation by the Mexican Navy, with joint intelligence from the DEA and the U.S. Marshals Service. A few days before his capture, Mexican authorities had been raiding several properties owned by members of the Sinaloa Cartel who were close to Guzmán throughout the state of Sinaloa. The operation leading to his capture began at 3:45 AM, when ten pickup trucks of the Mexican Navy carrying over 65 marines made their way to the resort area. Guzmán was hiding at the Miramar condominiums, located at #608 on Avenida del Mar. Mexican and U.S. federal agents had leads that the drug lord had been at that location for at least two days, and that he was staying on the condominium's fourth floor, in Room 401. When the Mexican authorities arrived at the location, they quickly subdued Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramírez, one of Guzmán's bodyguards, before quietly making their way to the fourth floor by the elevators and stairs. Once they were at Guzmán's front door, they broke into the apartment and stormed its two rooms. In one of the rooms was Guzmán, lying in bed with his wife (former beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro). Their two daughters were reported to have been at the condominium during the arrest. Guzmán tried to resist arrest physically, but he did not attempt to grab a rifle he had close to him. Amid the quarrel with the marines, the drug lord was hit four times. By 6:40 AM, he was arrested, taken to the ground floor, and walked to the condominium's parking lot, where the first photos of his capture were taken. His identity was confirmed through a fingerprint examination immediately following his capture. He was then flown to Mexico City, the country's capital, for formal identification. According to the Mexican government, no shots were fired during the operation.

Guzmán was presented in front of cameras during a press conference at the Mexico City International Airport that afternoon, and then he was transferred to the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1, a maximum-security prison in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico, on a Federal Police Black Hawk helicopter. The helicopter was escorted by two Navy helicopters and one from the Mexican Air Force. Surveillance inside the penitentiary and surrounding areas was increased by a large contingent of law enforcement.

Reactions:

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto confirmed the arrest through Twitter and congratulated the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR), Office of the General Prosecutor (PGR), the Federal Police, and the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (CISEN) for Guzmán's capture. In the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder said Guzmán had caused "death and destruction of millions of lives across the globe" and called the arrest "a landmark achievement, and a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States". Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos telephoned Peña Nieto and congratulated him for the arrest of Guzmán, highlighting its importance in the international efforts against drug trafficking. Colombia's Defense Minister, Juan Carlos Pinzón, congratulated Mexico on Guzmán's arrest and stated that his capture "contributes to eradicate this crime (drug trafficking) in the region". The Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina congratulated the Mexican government for the arrest.Costa Rica's President Laura Chinchilla congratulated the Mexican government through Twitter for the capture too. The French government extended its congratulations on 24 February and supported the Mexican security forces in their combat against organized crime. News of Guzmán's capture made it to the headlines of many media outlets across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. On Twitter, Mexico and Guzmán's capture were trending topics throughout most of 22 February 2014.

Bob Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office for the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, announced that U.S. authorities plan to seek the extradition of Guzmán for several cases pending against him in New York and other United States jurisdictions.

Second runaway and manhunt: 2015–2016

The escape of Guzmán triggered a wide-range manhunt.According to Mexico's National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido García, the manhunt was instituted immediately in the surrounding area by putting up several checkpoints and air searches by helicopter. The entire prison was put on lockdown and no one was allowed to enter or leave. The search was then extended to other federal entities: Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Morelos, Puebla, Guerrero, Michoacán, Querétaro, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala. However, most of the military officers involved in the search were sent to the State of Mexico. The Mexican government also issued an international warning to prevent Guzmán from escaping the country through airports, border checkpoints, or ports. Interpol and other security organizations were alerted to the possibility of him escaping into another country. Flights at the Toluca International Airport were cancelled, while soldiers occupied parts of Mexico City International Airport. Out of the 120 employees that were working at the prison that night, eighteen that worked in the area of Guzmán's cell were initially detained for questioning.By the afternoon, a total of 31 people had been called in for questioning. The director of the prison, Valentín Cárdenas Lerma, was among those detained.

     

When the news of the escape broke, President Peña Nieto was heading to a state visit in France along with several top officials from his cabinet and many others. The Secretary of the Interior Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, who was already in France waiting for them, returned to Mexico after learning of Guzmán's prison break. Peña Nieto returned to Mexico on 17 July. In a press conference, Peña Nieto said he was shocked by Guzmán's escape, and promised that the government would carry out an intensive investigation to see if officials had collaborated in the prison break. In addition, he claimed that Guzmán's escape was an "affront" to the Mexican government, and that they would not spare any resources in trying to recapture him. Peña Nieto, however, was severely criticized for the incident, and media outlets pointed out that this incident was among the administration's most embarrassing episodes. Critics stated that Guzmán's escape highlighted the high levels of corruption within the government, and questioned the government's ability to combat the country's organized crime groups.

On 13 July 2015, Osorio Chong met with members of the cabinet that specialize in security and law enforcement intelligence to discuss the escape of Guzmán, and scheduled a press conference that day. The objective of the meeting and the conference was to analyze the actions the government employed to recapture him. Among them were Rubido García, Arely Gómez González, the Attorney General of Mexico and Eugenio Imaz Gispert, head of the Center for Research and National Security. At the press conference, the government placed a $60 million MXN bounty (approximately US$3.8 million) for information that leads to Guzmán's arrest.

A number of officials were indicted; of these, three were police officers employed within the Division of Intelligence, and another two were employed by CISEN.[213]

Colombian assistance:

Officials of the Mexican government appealed to three Colombian Police retired generals for assistance in the closure of issues relating to Guzmán, according to a report dated to 1 August 2015.Among them is Rosso José Serrano, a decorated officer and one of the masterminds behind the dismantling of the Cali Cartel and Medellín Cartel and Luis Enrique Montenegro, protagonist in the arrests of Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela. They suggested particular Colombian strategies like creation of special search units ("Bloques de Búsqueda" or Search Blocs), specialized investigation and intelligence units, like DIJIN (Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol) and DIPOL (Directorate of Police Intelligence) and new laws about money laundering and asset forfeiture.After the third capture of Guzmán, it was revealed that the Government of Colombia had sent a team of 12 officials to assist the Mexican authorities on tracking down Guzmán.

Kate del Castillo meeting:

Mexican actress Kate del Castillo was first approached by Guzmán's lawyers in 2014, after having published an open letter to Guzmán in 2012 in which she expressed her sympathy and requested him to "traffic in love" instead of in drugs; Guzmán reached out again to del Castillo after his 2015 escape, and allegedly sought to cooperate with her in making a film about his life. American actor Sean Penn heard about the connection with Ms. del Castillo through a mutual acquaintance, and asked if he might come along to do an interview.

On 2 October, del Castillo and Penn visited Guzmán for seven hours at his hideout in the mountains, with Penn interviewing the fugitive for Rolling Stone magazine. Guzmán, who had never before acknowledged his drug trafficking to a journalist, told Penn he had a "fleet of narco-submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats" and that he supplied "more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world".

Guzmán had a close call in early October 2015, several days after the meeting with Penn and Kate del Castillo.An unnamed Mexican official confirmed that the meeting helped authorities locate Guzmán, with cell phone interceptions and information from American authorities directing Mexican Marines to a ranch near Tamazula, Durango, in the Sierra Madre mountains in western Mexico. The raid on the ranch was met with heavy gunfire and Guzmán was able to flee. The Attorney General of México declared that "El Chapo ran away through a gully and, although he was found by a helicopter, he was with two women and a girl and it was decided not to shoot". The two women were later revealed to be Guzmán's personal chefs, who had traveled with him to multiple safe houses. At one point, Guzmán reportedly carried a child on his arms "obscuring himself as a target".

Third arrest: 2016

President Enrique Peña Nieto, accompanied by Cabinet members, holds a press conference in the Palacio Nacional announcing the capture of Joaquín Guzmán

According to the official report published by the Mexican Navy, citizens reported "armed people" in a house at the coastal city of Los Mochis in northern Sinaloa, which was then placed under surveillance for one month. Monitored communications indicated the home was being prepared for the arrival of "Grandma" or "Aunt", which authorities suspected was code for a high-priority potential target. After the gunmen returned to the house, placing a large order for tacos at a nearby restaurant and picking up the order in a white van after midnight, the residence was raided in the early hours of 8 January 2016, in Operation Black Swan, by 17 marines from the Mexican Navy's Special Forces with support from the Mexican Army and the Federal Police – but Guzmán and a lieutenant escaped through a secret tunnel, emerging 1.5 km away and stealing a vehicle at gunpoint.

A statewide alert was issued for the stolen vehicle, and the Federal Police located and intercepted it about 20 km south of Los Mochis near the town of Juan José Ríos. Guzmán attempted to bribe the officers with offers of cash, properties, and offers of jobs. When the officers refused, Guzmán told them "you are all going to die". The four police officers sent pictures of Guzmán to their superiors, who were tipped that 40 assassins were on their way to free Guzmán. To avoid this counter-attack by cartel members, the policemen were told to take their prisoners to a motel on the outskirts of town to wait for reinforcements, and later, hand over the prisoners to the marines. They were subsequently taken to Los Mochis airport for transport to Mexico City, where Guzmán was presented to the press at the Mexico City airport and then flown by a Navy helicopter to the same maximum-security prison from which he escaped in July 2015.

During the raid, five gunmen were killed, six others arrested, and one Marine was wounded. The Mexican Navy said that they found two armored cars, eight assault rifles, including two Barrett M82 sniper rifles, two M16 rifles with grenade launchers and a loaded rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Reactions

Secretary of the Interior Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong was hosting a reunion with Mexico's ambassadors and consuls when he received a notice from the President on Guzmán's capture. He returned a few moments later with Secretary of National Defense Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, Secretary of Navy Vidal Francisco Soberón Sanz and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Claudia Ruiz Massieu. Osorio Chong then announced the capture to the diplomats by reading the President's tweet which resulted in applause and chants of Viva México, Viva el Presidente Peña and Viva las Fuerzas Armadas (Long live Mexico, Long live President Peña, Long live our Military Forces). This was followed by a spontaneous rendition of the National Anthem by the crowd.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos congratulated Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto for the capture of Guzmán. Santos stated that "Guzmán's capture is a success, a great blow against organized crime, and drug trafficking", adding that "finally, this individual (Guzmán), like all criminals, will find what he deserves in the eyes of justice, and we celebrate that the Mexican authorities have recaptured this criminal". Loretta Lynch, United States Attorney General, praised Mexican authorities "who have worked tirelessly in recent months to bring Guzmán to justice".

United States extradition and prosecution:

Main article: United States of America v. Joaquín Guzmán Loera

Guzmán in U.S. custody when extradited on 19 January 2017.

Mugshot taken shortly after Guzmán was extradited.

Mexico formally launched a renewed process of extradition to the United States two days after Guzmán was recaptured on 8 January 2016 after his second prison escape. Guzmán's lawyers mounted "numerous and creative injunctions" to prevent extradition.Vicente Antonio Bermúdez Zacarías was a federal judge involved in Guzmán's extradition proceedings, and he was assassinated on 17 October 2016 while jogging near Mexico City.

Guzmán was wanted in Chicago, San Diego, New York City, New Hampshire, Miami, and Texas, in addition to having indictments in at least seven different U.S. federal courts. Charges in the United States include drug trafficking with intent to distribute, conspiracy association, organized crime against health, money laundering, homicide, illegal possession of firearms, kidnapping, and murder in Chicago, Miami, New York, and other cities. A critical requirement for extradition was that the U.S. must guarantee that they would not sentence Guzmán to death if he were found guilty of homicide charges.

On 19 January 2017, Guzmán was extradited to the U.S. to face the charges and turned over to the custody of HSI and DEA agents. He was housed at the maximum-security wing of the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York located in Manhattan. He pled not guilty on 20 January to a 17-count indictment in the United States District Court in New York. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan scheduled his trial for 5 November 2018, when jury selection began. According to the prosecutors, juror anonymity and an armed escort are necessary even if Guzmán is in isolation due to his history of having jurors and witnesses murdered.The judge agreed to keep jurors anonymous and to have Guzmán transported to and from the courthouse by U.S. Marshals and sequestered from the public while in the courthouse. Opening arguments began Tuesday 13 November, and closing arguments took place on 31 January 2019. Guzmán was found guilty of all counts on 12 February 2019, and was sentenced on 17 July 2019 to life in prison plus 30 years and ordered to forfeit more than $12.6 billion. He is now serving his sentence at ADX Florence, the nation's most secure supermax prison under Federal Register Number 89914-053.

Personal and family criminal activities:

Guzmán's family is heavily involved in drug trafficking. Several members of his family, including his brother, one of his sons, and a nephew were killed by Sinaloa's archrival cartels, Los Zetas and the Beltrán Leyva Organization.

In 1977, Guzmán married Alejandrina María Salazar Hernández in a small ceremony in the town of Jesús María, Sinaloa. The couple had at least three children: César, Iván Archivaldo, and Jesús Alfredo. He set them up in a ranch home in Jesús María.

When he was 30 years old, El Chapo fell in love with a bank clerk, Estela Peña of Nayarit, whom he kidnapped and with whom he had sexual relations. They later married.

In the mid-1980s, Guzmán married once more, to Griselda López Pérez, with whom he had four more children: Édgar, Joaquín Jr., Ovidio, and Griselda Guadalupe.

Guzmán's sons followed him into the drug business, and his third wife, López Pérez, was arrested in 2010, in Culiacán.

In November 2007, Guzmán married an 18-year-old American beauty queen, Emma Coronel Aispuro,[268] the daughter of one of his top deputies, Inés Coronel Barreras, in Canelas, Durango. In August 2011, she gave birth to twin girls, Maria Joaquina and Emali Guadalupe, in Los Angeles County Hospital, in California.

On 1 May 2013, Guzmán's father-in-law, Inés Coronel Barreras, was captured by Mexican authorities in Agua Prieta, Sonora, with no gunfire exchanged. U.S. authorities believe Coronel Barreras was a "key operative" of the Sinaloa Cartel who grew and smuggled marijuana through the Arizona border area.

On 15 February 2005, Guzmán's son Iván Archivaldo, known as "El Chapito", was arrested in Guadalajara on money laundering charges. He was sentenced to five years in a federal prison but released in April 2008, after a Mexican federal judge, Jesús Guadalupe Luna, ruled that there was no proof his cash came from drugs other than that he was a drug lord's son. Luna and another judge were later suspended on suspicion of unspecified irregularities in their decisions, including Luna's decision to release "El Chapito".

Guzmán's son Édgar Guzmán López died after a 2008 ambush in a shopping center parking lot, in Culiacán, Sinaloa. Afterwards, police found more than 500 AK-47 bullet casings at the scene.Guzmán's brother Arturo, known as "El Pollo", was killed in prison in 2004.

Another of Guzmán's sons, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, known as "El Gordo" ("The Fat One"), then 23 years old, was suspected of being a member of the cartel and was indicted on federal charges of drug trafficking in 2009 with Guzmán, by the U.S. District Court of Northern Illinois, which oversees Chicago. Authorities described Guzmán Salazar as a growing force within his father's organization and directly responsible for Sinaloa's drug trade between the U.S. and Mexico and for managing his billionaire father's growing list of properties. Guzmán Salazar and his mother, Guzmán's former wife María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández, were both described as key operatives in the Sinaloa Cartel and added to the U.S.'s financial sanction list under the Kingpin Act on 7 June 2012.

The U.S. Treasury Department described Salazar as Guzmán's wife, in its sanction against her, and described Guzmán as her husband. The month before, the U.S. Treasury Department had announced sanctions against Guzmán's sons Iván Guzmán Salazar and Ovidio Guzmán López under the Kingpin Act.Guzmán's second wife, Griselda López Pérez, was also sanctioned by the U.S. under the Kingpin Act and described as Guzmán's wife.

Jesús Guzmán Salazar was reported to have been detained by Mexican Marines in an early morning raid, in the western state of Jalisco on 21 June 2012. Months later, however, the Mexican Attorney General's Office announced the Marines had arrested the wrong man and that the man captured was actually Félix Beltrán León, who said he was a used-car dealer, not the drug lord's son. U.S. and Mexican authorities blamed each other for providing the inaccurate information that led to the arrest.

In 2012, Alejandrina Gisselle Guzmán Salazar, a 31-year-old pregnant physician and Mexican citizen from Guadalajara, was said to have claimed she was Guzmán's daughter as she crossed the U.S. border into San Diego. She was arrested on fraud charges for entering the country with a false visa. Unnamed officials said the woman was the daughter of María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández but did not appear to be a major figure in the cartel. She had planned to meet the father of her child in Los Angeles and give birth in the United States.

On the night of 17 June 2012, Obied Cano Zepeda, a nephew of Guzmán's, was gunned down by unknown assailants at his home in the state capital of Culiacán, while hosting a Father's Day celebration. The gunmen, who were reportedly carrying AK-47 rifles, also killed two other guests and left another seriously injured.

Obied was a brother of Luis Alberto Cano Zepeda (alias "El Blanco")'s, another nephew of Guzmán's who worked as a pilot drug transporter for the Sinaloa cartel. The latter was arrested by the Mexican military in August 2006. InSight Crime notes that Obied's murder may have been either a retaliation attack by Los Zetas, for Guzmán's incursions into their territory, or a brutal campaign heralding Los Zetas' presence in Sinaloa.

Even after Guzman's arrest, the Sinaloa Cartel remained the primary drug distributor (in 2018) in the U.S. among Mexican cartels, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Drug empire:

Recaptured, Extradited to the United States

On January 8, 2016, Peña Nieto announced on Twitter that Mexican authorities had recaptured Guzmán after a shootout earlier that morning in the city of Los Mochis.

"Mission Accomplished," the president wrote. "We have him."

The drug lord's apprehension came one day before his interview with Penn was published on Rolling Stone's website. It was unclear whether his communication with the actor contributed to his capture, although Mexican authorities cited the monitoring of his electronic exchanges as helpful to the process. 

Guzmán was returned to the same prison from which he escaped the previous summer. He was later moved to a facility near the U.S border in Juarez, Mexico. In October 2016, Vicente Bermudez Zacarias, the judge presiding over Guzmán's case, was murdered near his home.

In January 2017, the Mexican government extradited Guzmán to the United States to face drug trafficking and other charges. The following day Guzmán appeared in U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York, and pleaded not guilty to over a dozen charges.

In May 2018, one of Guzmán’s lawyers, A. Eduardo Balarezo, asked Judge Brian M. Cogan to move the trial from Brooklyn to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, which is directly connected to the high-security facility where the defendant was being held. The request was denied.

El Chapo's Trial

The trial began amid heavy security in Brooklyn's Federal District Court on November 13, 2018. His lawyer immediately raised eyebrows with the claim that the actual leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was a man named Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who had paid "the entire government" to look the other way. 

In January 2019, the defense team produced a witness who testified that former President Peña Nieto had accepted a bribe from El Chapo. Another witness testified that the drug lord's wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was heavily involved in planning his 2015 escape from prison.

Guilty Verdict and Sentencing:

On February 12, 2019, following more than 200 hours of testimony from 56 witnesses, El Chapo was found guilty on all 10 counts against him, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to launder narcotics proceeds and use of firearms.

On July 17, 2019, Judge Cogan sentenced El Chapo to life in prison plus 30 years, along with ordering him to pay $12.6 billion in restitution.

TV Show:

In April 2017, Netflix released the first season of its crime drama, El Chapo, which depicts the rise and eventual downfall of the notorious drug kingpin, played by actor Marco de la O. The second season was released that September and season 3 followed in July 2018.

Children:

It's believed Guzmán has married at least three times and is the father of nine, possibly 13 children. Among his children who have taken roles within their father's drug-trafficking business, Ivan Guzman is perhaps one of the most conspicuous, sharing his extravagant playboy lifestyle full of cars, wild animals, guns and parties, on social media