We’re sure everyone has heard of the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Many of us got to know the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, nicknamed El Chapo, who recently appeared with him in the 2017 Netflix series about his life. El Chapo, which held the world drug market during its active period, caused the death of tens of thousands of people.
El Chapo actually has a classic story. In a lousy family, he had to get involved in dirty work at a young age, but thanks to his ambition, he rose quickly and established his own cartel. It is a legendary story that he became a known and wanted criminal all over the world in a short time. Who is El Chapo, let’s take a closer look and see the details of his blood-curdling life story.
Who is El Chapo? An unlucky child born into filth:
Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, with his full name, was born on April 4, 1957 to a poor family in rural Mexico. Known for being violent by his father, Guzmán was known by the nickname El Chapo, which means short in Spanish, because he was a short and stocky boy.
Born into a farming family, his childhood was spent in the fields. From time to time he worked in the poppy fields with all the children of the region. He and his father were doing odd drug dealing businesses like many people in the area. His real involvement with organized crime began in the 1980s.
Ambitious young man who started an apprenticeship with the cartel:
El Chapo had started working for the Guadalajara Cartel, run by El Padrino, in the 1970s. He had the simple task of inspecting drug shipments. But he wanted to increase his share. As a reckless man, he did not hesitate to use violence, so his prestige in the cartel was gradually increasing.
In the 1980s, El Chapo began to collaborate with Mexican and Colombian cartels. Of course, the place where the goods were sent was the United States of America, where the most drug addicts in the world live. The testimonies of a DEA mole within the Guadalajara Cartel during this period describe the step-by-step progress of El Chapo.
El Chapo is finally starting his own cartel:
After the Guadalajara Cartel leader was arrested, El Chapo didn’t want things to get out of hand, so he set up his own Sinaloa Cartel. In fact, in this period, we see how our hero truly became ambitious. Between 1989 and 1993, there was a period of terrible conflict between the Sinaloa Cartel and both other cartels and the Mexican army, in which thousands of people lost their lives.
Due to government pressure, El Chapo fled for a while and wandered around. He was arrested and sent to Mexico in 1993 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Of course, he continued to run his cartel from prison during this period as well. He easily escaped from prison in 2001 with the help of bribed guards. The escape investigation revealed that almost all the guards were corrupt.
The 2000s were when El Chapo saw its peak:
After escaping prison, El Chapo literally founded his own kingdom. Every single drug smuggled out of Mexico and Colombia into the United States in the 2000s belonged to him. He was handing out millions of dollars in bribes like cookies. According to Forbes magazine, in 2009 the Sinaloa Cartel had $3 billion and El Chapo had a personal fortune of $1 billion.
Just like Pablo Escobar, this is the period when El Chapo turned into a folk hero. Not only did he provide employment from the drug business to the people in the grip of poverty, he also started helping every poor person in the region. So much so that heroic ballads that are sung even today were written in his name.
The USA put great rewards on El Chapo’s head:
For the United States, El Chapo had become enemy number one. It was announced that a reward of 5 million dollars will be given to anyone who brings the slightest information about him. On the other hand, the Mexican army was fighting the Sinaloa Cartel with all its might. According to official figures, tens of thousands of people lost their lives in the conflicts that took place at that time.
During this period, a manhunt for El Chapo was launched in the literal sense of the word. Let alone his family, anyone who had anything to do with him was caught. All countries, especially the USA, confiscated the family’s assets. El Chapo was caught once in the process, but escaped with the help of a bribe. The biggest escape occurred in 2014.
Even in Prison Break, such escapes were not seen:
El Chapo was finally captured and arrested in Mazatlan, Mexico in 2014, after weeks of operation by the DEA and the Mexican army. While waiting for the court, he was sent to the maximum security Altiplano prison located near Toluca. But on the night of July 11, 2015, they looked and El Chapo did not exist.
Investigations revealed a 1.5 kilometer tunnel extending out from under the sink in his cell. The tunnel was a professional structure, reinforced with 2-meter timbers. In fact, a motorcycle was used for earth moving works in the tunnel. Well, El Chapo had escaped. A manhunt has begun again.
Finally, El Chapo was caught never to run again:
After the escape, an unprecedented manhunt was launched with the joint participation of the US and Mexican security forces. This time, operations were carried out not only on El Chapo and those around it, but also on all known drug cartels. As such, the knot was more easily untied and El Chapo was captured on January 8, 2016, in his home district of Sinaloa, after a bloody conflict.
This time, they kept things tight and sent El Chapo to the United States, where he was wanted for crimes such as drug trafficking, money laundering and murder. His trial, which started on November 13, 2018 amid high security measures, was completed on February 12, 2019, and he was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison. In 2021, his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was also arrested and sentenced to three years in prison.
Action-packed series about his life: El Chapo
- Year: 2017 – 2018
- Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
- Cast: Marco de la O, Humberto Busto, Diego Vasquez
- IMDb: 7.8
In the Netflix original series El Chapo, we watch the story of Joaquín Guzmán, nicknamed El Chapo, one of the biggest drug lords in the world, getting involved in crime, establishing his own cartel, reaching the top and finally being caught.
Answering the question of who is El Chapo, one of the world’s largest drug cartel leaders, we shared some of the important details about his extraordinary life story. Let’s ask the obvious question; Bigger than Escobar or El Chapo? You can share your thoughts in the comments.
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