Here’s a look at the life of Joaquín Guzmán, otherwise known as “El Chapo,” a Mexican drug lord who has repeatedly broken out of prison, and is set to be extradited to the United States to stand trial on federal charges.
Personal:
Birth date: December 25, 1954 or April 4, 1957 (Officials have released conflicting birth dates)
Birth place: La Tuna, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico
Birth name: Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera
Father: Emilio Guzmán Bustillos, subsistence farmer
Mother: María Consuelo Loera Pérez
Marriages: Believed to have been married at least three times, the most recent being Emma Coronel Aispuro (2007-present)
Children: Is purported to have fathered between 12 and 13 children
Other Facts:
The nickname, “El Chapo,” means “Shorty.” Guzmán stands 5 ‘6″ tall.
Leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, which the US Justice Department describes as “one of the world’s most prolific, violent and powerful drug cartels,” moving billions upon billions of dollars in marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
Was able to continue running the Sinaloa Cartel in prison through bribes.
The Sinaloa Cartel controls roughly 40% to 60% of Mexico’s drug trade, with earnings at around $3 billion annually.
Claimed in 2014 that he has killed 2,000-3,000 people.
Is said to be semi-illiterate, receiving no formal education beyond third grade.
Is known for using intricate tunnel systems for both evading authorities and moving the massive quantities of drugs that made the Sinaloa Cartel so powerful.
His cartel has produced, smuggled and distributed marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other types of drugs.
Has appeared on both Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List and Most Powerful People List.
According to the US Treasury Department, he is the most “powerful drug trafficker in the world.”
Guzmán is perceived by some as a hero, with many narcocorridos, “drug ballads,” that glorify kingpins, written in his honor.
Guzmán faces charges in 10 legal cases in Mexico, as well as federal charges in Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida and New Hampshire.
Timeline:
1960s – Begins planting marijuana with his cousins.
1970s – Begins running drugs to major Mexican cities and the US border and working with major drug traffickers such as Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, leader of the Guadalajara.
1980s – Member of the Guadalajara Cartel. After the arrest of Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo, the cartel splits into factions. Guzmán becomes leader of the Sinaloa Cartel Pacific coast faction.
February 1992 – Police find the bodies of six Guzmán’s top lieutenants dumped along Tijuana highways; the six men had been tortured and shot.
November 1992 – Six people are gunned down at a discotheque in Puerto Vallarta by gunmen working for Guzmán, whose targets are traffickers in the Tijuana Cartel.
May 1993 – Gunmen with the Tijuana Cartel attempt to assassinate Guzmán in retribution, firing upon a vehicle at an airport. Guzmán escapes unharmed, but Cardinal Archbishop of Guadalajara Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampa, is killed accidentally, along with six others.
June 9, 1993 – Wanted on charges of drug trafficking, murder and kidnapping, he is arrested in Guatemala and extradited to Mexico. Guzmán is subsequently sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in a maximum security prison.
Early 2000s – Violence across Mexico escalates as El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel attempts to encroach upon Tijuana and Gulf Cartel territory.
January 19, 2001 – Escapes the maximum-security Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, Mexico, in a laundry cart. The planned escape requires bribes and cooperation allegedly costing him $2.5 million, according to Malcolm Beith’s book, “The Last Narco.”
2004 – The US government announces a $5 million reward for information leading to Guzmán’s arrest and conviction.
May 2008 – Guzmán’s son is murdered in a parking lot shootout near Culican, Mexico.
2009 – First appears on Forbes’ billionaires list.
2009 – Guzmán and other cartel leaders are indicted on charges of conspiring to import more than 264,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States between 1990 and 2005.
August 2011 – Guzmán’s wife, Emma, who has dual US-Mexican citizenship, gives birth to twin girls in a hospital outside of Los Angeles.
2012 – The US Treasury Department uses the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to freeze the US assets of his relatives.
February 22, 2014 – Guzmán is apprehended at a beach resort in Mazatlán, Mexico.
July 11, 2015 – Escapes the maximum-security Altiplano Federal Prison near Toluca, Mexico, by crawling through an opening in the shower area of his cell block leading to a nearly mile-long tunnel.
October 2015 – While on the run, he meets with movie star Sean Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo. Penn’s interview with Guzmán subsequently runs in Rolling Stone magazine. “I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world,” Guzmán is quoted in the interview. “I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats.”
January 8, 2016 – Guzmán is recaptured by Mexican authorities in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, after a raid leads to a shootout in which five people connected to Guzmán are killed.
May 9, 2016 – A judge in Mexico approves the US’s request to extradite Guzmán, who faces charges in seven states. Once extradited, he will be sent to Brooklyn, New York, to stand trial on federal charges.
January 19, 2017 – Mexico’s Foreign Ministry turns Guzmán over to US authorities.
January 20, 2017 – Enters a plea of not guilty at his arraignment in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.