Damaso "El Licenciado" Lopez Nunez (born 22 February 1966) was the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel from 2017 to 2018, succeeding El Chapo and preceding Ismael Zambada Garcia.
Biography[]
Damaso Lopez Nunez was born in Eldorado, Sinaloa, Mexico in 1966, and he became a key lieutenant of the Sinaloa Cartel under El Chapo. In 2011, El Chapo entrusted Lopez with the territories of Navolato and Los Cabos as the DEA and the Mexican government cracked down on the Cartel's operations. In 2015, after El Chapo was imprisoned, his son Ivan Archivaldo Guzman claimed that his father had appointed him as his successor, revealing this to Lopez in the form of a mariachi band singing a celebratory narcocorrido about Ivan becoming the new boss. Damaso disputed this, and he attempted to convince Ismael Zambada Garcia that Ivan was too young and inexperienced to take El Chapo's place; Zambada mediated between the two men and refused to pick a side. In 2017, after El Chapo's recapture by the Mexican government, Lopez became the new leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. However, on 2 May 2017, Lopez was arrested by the Mexican Army in Mexico City and was extradited to the United States and sentenced to life in prison in September 2018.