Joaquin Archivaldo "El Chapo" Guzman Loera (born 25 December 1954) was the boss of the powerful Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. El Chapo was once considered to be the most powerful drug lord in the world due to his international business dealings, his 2011 net worth of $1 billion, his connections with senior political, military, and law enforcement figures in Mexico, the military capabilities of his cartel, and his ability to repeatedly evade capture and escape from captivity. El Chapo led the Sinaloa Cartel from Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo's arrest in 1989 until his final capture in 2016, upon which Ismael Zambada Garcia took control of the organization; Guzman had escaped from maximum-security prisons several times, but he was extradited to the United States in January 2017 and sent to a maximum-security prison in 2019.
Biography[]
Early life[]
A young El Chapo
Joaquin Guzman Loera was born in La Tuna, Sinaloa, Mexico on 25 December 1954, the son of an opium poppy farmer. He was kicked out of the house as a teenager, so he set up his own opium plantation with his cousins Arturo, Alfredo, Carlos, and Hector Beltran Leyva when he was just fifteen years old. He supported his family by selling drugs, and he came to work for his uncle Pedro Aviles Perez; on one occasion, he drove off in Aviles' fancy white car just to see what it was like. Guzman was determined to one day drive a car like that, and he angrily swore to his father that he would become the most powerful drug lord who ever lived. During the 1970s, he worked for El Guero as a smuggler, and he was known to execute those who did not follow his orders efficiently.
Work for Miguel Angel[]
Chapo in 1983
In the early 1980s, Guzman was introduced to Guadalajara Cartel boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, and he worked as his chauffeur and logistics chief. He smuggled drugs into the United States by building tunnels, and he had his right-hand man El Guero execute all of the tunnel workers after the tunnel's construction was completed; he could not risk losing his most important drug route.
Guzman during the 1980s
Guzman would come to be disappointed with his position within the cartel, so he decided to fly to Colombia in 1985 to assist Amado Carrillo Fuentes with a delivery of cocaine to Los Angeles. Guzman met with Medellin Cartel smuggler Barranquillero before meeting Pablo Escobar himself, and he swore - on his life - that he could deliver a shipment within 48 hours. Guzman's delivery was complicated by a plane crash, the police's confiscation of his drugs, and a brief arrest by the DEA. He gave the DEA millions of dollars in exchange for his release, and he managed to successfully deliver the shipment to the buyer, Chepe, in Los Angeles. Guzman proved himself to be a competent trafficker, but Miguel Angel still refused to make him a boss. In 1988, he sought to do business with the brothers Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix, the two drug lords of Tijuana, but they said that they only did business with other bosses. Angered that the Tijuana lords rebuffed him, Guzman decided to move cocaine through their territory without letting them know, and Guzman succeeded in doing so by hiding the cocaine in cans of peppers.
Boss[]
El Chapo on the phone with Ramon Arellano Felix
In 1989, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Amado Carrillo Fuentes were arrested for their roles in the murder of DEA agent Kiki Camarena, and the Mexican government's liaison with the drug cartels, General Eugenio Blanco, forced Felix Gallardo to divide up the Guadalajara Cartel's territories among his lieutenants. Chihuahua and Nuevo Laredo went to Rafael Aguilar Guajardo, who also controlled Ciudad Juarez on behalf of Carillo; Sinaloa went to Ismael Zambada Garcia; Tijuana went to Benjamin and Ramon Arellano Felix, Nogales and Hermosillo went to Emilio Quintero Payan; San Luis Rio Colorado went to El Guero; Mexicali went to Rafael Chao; and Guzman received Tecate, making him a boss at last.
War with Tijuana[]
El Chapo in Tijuana
As a boss, Guzman now wielded considerable power and respect. On 1 January 1989, the birthday of Ismael Zambada Garcia, Guzman was invited to the birthday party in Tijuana, but he still held a grudge against the hosts, the Arellano Felix brothers. He instead sent his associate Rayo Lopez to represent him, but the drunken Lopez was shot by Ramon Arellano Felix for making a fuss with the bouncer. Guzman saw this murder as an act of war, and he decided to avenge Lopez's death by killing the Arellano Felix brothers. Guzman, El Guero, their hitman Tono, and a few other Sinaloa Cartel hitmen attempted to kill the Arellano Felix brothers as they drove down Avenida Revolucion in Tijuana, with Guzman firing on their bulletproof car with an AK-47 assault rifle and his pistol. The two brothers managed to escape from the ambush, marking the start of the war. Guzman was nearly killed in the bombing of his Guadalajara safehouse, and he retaliated against the Tijuana Cartel with the Otay warehouse raid, stealing a large shipment of drugs from the Tijuana Cartel. This raid led to General Blanco freeing Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was supposed to serve as a mediator between the two cartels. Carrillo negotiated a peace between the two cartels at his ranch, but Guzman was not willing to make peace with his enemies.
Guzman allied with Ismael Zambada Garcia against the brothers after the Tijuana leaders had El Guero's wife and two young daughters killed on video, with the Arellano Felix brothers reasoning that they were taking preemptive action against a growing threat. Zambada and Guzman collaborated against the brothers, with Guzman contacting his political ally Julio Vicente Vega Gonzalez to supply his hit squad with police uniforms. On 8 November 1992, the Sinaloa hitmen attempted to kill the Arellano Felix brothers in the Christine nightclub shootout in Puerto Vallarta, where Benjamin was celebrating his birthday. Benjamin had left the club before the shooting began, while Ramon escaped; their younger brother Lobito Arellano Felix was captured, but Guzman was forced to release Arellano so that Zambada would remain his ally.
Airport shootout[]
Chapo at the airport shootout
General Blanco warned Carrillo Fuentes that he would send him back to prison if he could not bring an end to the violence, and Carrillo Fuentes responded by ordering Guzman's death. He hired a squad of Logan Heights Gang hitmen to work with Ramon Arellano Felix to take part in the double murder of Guzman and the anti-government cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara International Airport on 24 May 1993. Guzman was at the airport to catch a flight to Puerto Vallarta to meet with the Deputy Attorney General; his corrupt police ally El Chino had purchased the ticket for him, but El Chino was secretly working for both sides in order to get a large amount of money from the cartels. The hit squad engaged in a shootout with the Sinaloa bodyguards in the parking lot of the airport, and Guzman's life was saved by a sicario who pushed Guzman to the pavement as he took a bullet for him. Guzman managed to flee to his safehouse in Bugambilias after the shooting, and the Mexican government had the blame placed on Guzman. Guzman was now proclaimed the most dangerous drug lord in Mexico, and he was subjected to a massive manhunt. Threatened by the Mexican government, the DEA, the Tijuana Cartel, and Carrillo's Juarez Cartel, Guzman shaved his mustache and decided to flee from Mexico.
Flight to Guatemala and arrest[]
Guzman being taken to prison for the first time
On 4 June 1993, Guzman, Tono, and Guzman's mistress Maria del Rocio del Villar Becerra relocated to Guatemala, where he planned to continue his operation with the help of the drug lord Otto Roberto Herrera Garcia. Guzman succeeded in purchasing a drug shipment from Herrera, and he planned to move it to Miami, Florida from El Salvador via Cuba. However, he was nearly killed by the Salvadoran Army in the Puerta La Libertad raid, and his warehouse was raided by the DEA, costing him his drugs. On 9 June 1993, he was captured upon his return to Guatemala; he had been planning to meet with the corrupt Guatelaman general Rosado and Herrera at the Panamericana Hotel, only to find himself ambushed by several Guatemalan Army soldiers. Guzman was sent to the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, where he met General Blanco's successor, Conrado Higuera Sol. Higuera promised to move Guzman to a "friendlier" prison if Guzman gave him information on President Carlos Salinas de Gortari's rival Ernesto Ruffo Appel, who had business links to the Tijuana Cartel. Guzman revealed Ruffo's connections to Tijuana and also claimed that the cardinal was an accidental casualty of the airport shootout, satisfying the government. However, on 22 November 1995, he was sent to the Altiplano federal prison in Almoloya de Juarez, where he was tortured and abused. He let his brother Arturo Guzman Loera and former policeman Zulema Hernandez run his business while he was in prison, and he bribed his prison guards with $2,500,000 and escaped from his prison in 2001.
Mexican Drug War[]
Now that he was free, Guzman rekindled his friendships with Ismael Zambada Garcia, Arturo Beltran Leyva, and Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, and they planned to take over the Ciudad Juarez border crossing points from the Juarez Cartel. In 2004, they killed Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, setting off a series of drug wars between the cartels that would cost over 60,000 lives from 2006 onwards. President Felipe Calderon announced the start of the Mexican Drug War in 2006, cracking down on the drug cartels of the country. Guzman fought against the other cartels by occasionally working with the DEA and the Mexican government to dismantle his enemies, including the Tijuana Cartel, but this accidentally led to the arrest of Alfredo Beltran Leyva, one of the leaders of the allied Beltran Leyva Cartel. The Beltran Leyva and Sinaloa cartels went to war, with Ismael's son Vicente Zambada Niebla surviving a hit attempt and Guzman's son Edgar Guzman Lopez being murdered on 8 May 2008. The death of Edgar Guzman Lopez led to Guzman unleashing his full wrath upon the Beltran Leyva Cartel, leaving 128 dead in June 2008 and 143 dead in July 2008. The Beltran Leyva decided to ally with the Gulf Cartel and its Los Zetas hit squad, and the gang war intensified as more lives were lost on both sides. He ultimately allied with the military when they took down the Beltran Leyvas in a 2011 raid which killed Arturo Beltran Leyva, and he expanded his operations worldwide with the help of Vicente Zambada Niebla.
Crackdown[]
The law cracked down on El Chapo as his network expanded into Russia, Argentina, the Philippines, and elsewehre, and Vicente was captured and extradited to the US. El Chapo faced increasing pressure as the new Beltran Leyva boss Fausto Isidro Meza Flores attacked his operations and President Calderon intensified the hunt for El Chapo with the goal of winning re-election in 2012. In addition to the police, Calderon sent the Mexican Army and Mexican Navy against El Chapo, causing him to send his wife Emma Coronel Aispuro to California to give birth to their twins. Guzman Loera defeated Meza Flores in the Los Mochis shootout, recapturing lost turf, but he suffered another setback when Don Sol resigned from Calderon's government to lead Enrique Pena Nieto's election campaign. Don Sol requested that Guzman Loera help Pena Nieto win by tripling the PRI voter turnout in the Golden Triangle region; only with Don Sol in power could El Chapo stand a chance against the government. After Pena Nieto's victory, even the Navy stopped pursuing El Chapo, who set about solidifying his relationship with his friend, Sinaloa governor Mario Lopez Valdez; he and Valdez purged the few municipal presidents who were still against El Chapo, and he also bribed the rest of the Sinaloa municipal police forces to turn on Meza Flores. Meza Flores retaliated by shutting down his Nogales gun running operation and by kidnapping, interrogating, and murdering Lopez Valdez's bodyguard, who was taped revealing Lopez Valez's relationship with El Chapo, sabotaging the reputation of President Pena Nieto, who had been close friends with Lopez Valdez. In response, Don Sol was forced to crack down on El Chapo, shutting down his crystal lab at Tamazula, arresting three of his lieutenants, and ordering an Army, Navy, and Federales raid on his former wife's house, from which Guzman only narrowly escaped via a tunnel, now aware that Don Sol was after him. He decided to send his lieutenant Damaso Lopez to Los Cabos to wait for him as he visited his wife and twin daughters in Mazatlan for a few hours, after which he would join Lopez.
Capture and escape[]
El Chapo's arrest in 2014
On 22 February 2014, Guzman and his lieutenant Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramirez were arrested by Mexican police at a beachfront hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa (where Guzman had been sleeping with Emma), and he returned to the Almoloya prison; the Mexican government refused to extradite him to the USA, fearing that he would be given a lighter sentence in exchange for information against his rivals. He attempted to force the warden to help his escape attempt, first starting a hunger strike alongside Edgar Valdez Villarreal and succeeding in obtaining better food, and later threatening to harm the warden's family if he did not help him escape. The warden responded by having El Chapo placed in solitary confinement, where El Chapo gradually befriended his guard, Tobias, and bribed him with a watch before having him become his contact with his lawyer. After the guard agreed to give El Chapo the names of two DICE officers who were supervising his detention, the warden had Tobias discharged and the officers transferred, and El Chapo was again sent to solitary confinement; he was also served his meals in his cell rather than being allowed to eat with the others. However, Higuera Sol visited El Chapo in prison and informed him that he would send him a map of the prison's layout and ensure that he would escape in order to create an outrage which would destroy Pena Nieto's career. However, he warned El Chapo that, once he had risen to power in Pena Nieto's stead, he would become El Chapo's most ruthless pursuer. El Chapo angrily said that Higuera Sol should be the once in prison, but he ultimately used the plans to dig a tunnel and make one last bid for freedom.
Recapture[]
El Chapo's recapture
On 11 July 2015, Guzman again escaped from prison, only to find that his cartel was in the throes of a bitter leadership dispute between Damaso Lopez and El Chapo's son Ivan Archivaldo Guzman. El Chapo resolved the dispute before making plans to escape to Colombia either by plane or by fishing boat, and he also convinced Higuera Sol to fake his death, thus helping El Chapo escape and helping to boost Higuera Sol's reputation. The DEA was not convinced by the bringing in of a dead lookalike of El Chapo, nor by the theft of the lookalike's body from the morgue and the planting of El Chapo's real blood at the scene. Ultimately, the military began a major manhunt to track him down, and he evaded capture several times either due to his use of tunnels or due to police corruption. During his time as a fugitive, he met the actress Kate del Castillo and attempted to convince her to make a Hollywood movie about his life; he was also interviewed by the American actor Sean Penn.
El Chapo in prison
After the Guamuchil shootout with Isidro's hitmen (who had kept up their search for El Chapo), Guzman decided to relocate to Los Mochis, deeper inside of Isidro's territory, where he believed the military would never find him. However, Higuera Sol correctly predicted that El Chapo would attempt a ruse, and the military closely monitored the town until an order of 200 tacos alarmed a local food vendor who was working with the police. El Chapo was captured by the Mexican Navy's special forces unit in an 8 January 2016 raid on his Los Mochis safehouse, having failed to escape in a stolen car. On 19 January 2017, he was photographed in US custody, and he was imprisoned at the supermax wing of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, New York City. On 17 July 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison, having admitted to between 2,000 and 3,000 murders.