How El Chapo Became The Most Powerful Narcotics Trafficker In The World
With a trial in full swing, El Chapo's reign may be coming to an end. The Mexican narcotics lord, named Joaquin Guzman at birth, remains one of the most notorious criminals in the world. In fact, Forbes rated him as one of the most powerful people on the planet.
But El Chapo didn't start out as the head of an infamous cartel. Rather, he slowly rose to become one of the most ruthless, feared men of all time. This is the story of how a child born into a poor, rural family rose to riches and infamy after turning to a life of crime.
El Chapo Was Actually Born Into The Illicit Narcotics Industry
Guzman was born to a poor family in the rural community of La Tuna, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico. His father was a cattle rancher, but many people suspect that his dad dipped into farming opium poppies.
Farming opium poppies was a common practice around the town where El Chapo grew up and something the future crime lord would fall into shortly after.
No One Knows El Chapo's Birthday
El Chapo has always been excellent about remaining in the shadows. The elusive kingpin spent the last 13 years skirting the law after being a highly wanted man with a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head. Authorities can't even agree on the drug lord's birthday (and he's remained rather mum on the subject). Some accounts say his birthday is April 4, 1957. Other accounts – including official documents -- claim the cartel leader was born on December 25, 1954. A matter of two years doesn't really make a difference when you get to a certain age and merely contributes to the secrecy and mystique of the cold, hard trafficking kingpin.
El Chapo Had a Difficult Childhood
El Chapo didn't really have an easy life. When he was very young, his three older brothers all died of natural causes. Before he was old enough to learn multiplication in school, he was selling oranges on the side of the street. By third grade, he dropped out of school to work with his father.
His father didn't just work him hard. He actually beat him causing him to hide out at his paternal grandparent's home for a break from the abuse. When he was at home, he did his best to protect his remaining siblings from his father's wrath.
He Is Extremely Close to His Mother
Even though El Chapo's father was abusive, he formed a very special bond with his mother, Consuelo Loera. In the past, Consuelo has defended her son's actions. She's beamed at his motivation and how he was determined to make money as a child. According to his mom, El Chapo would make paper money, count it and wrap it up. She's also claimed her son is a scapegoat for things going wrong on both sides of the law. If something goes wrong for the cartel, it's blamed on him. If something goes wrong for the police, it's blamed on him.
Despite this, Consuelo isn't blind to her son's lifestyle. She's begged him to find god and right his wrongs, but her love for him is unconditional.
Guzman Began Growing Opium Poppies With His Dad Because of a Lack of Job Opportunities
El Chapo's rural town didn't really have many job opportunities, especially for school-aged kids. Instead, he turned to growing opium poppies – something that was pretty normal for residents of his village.
El Chapo worked with his brothers and spent his days cutting poppy buds. They'd stack the plant into kilos which his father would sell to suppliers. His father also sold marijuana at commercial centers and brought young El Chapo along with him during these illegal deals. Most times, his father wouldn't even return with any money having spent his entire pay on liquor and prostitutes.
El Chapo Got Fed up With His Dad and Started Farming Marijuana on His Own
When he was 15 years old, El Chapo got fed up with his father, who constantly mismanaged their business' money. Instead, he decided to start his own marijuana plantation with four of his cousins. It didn't take very long for El Chapo to support his entire family with the success of his marijuana farm, but tensions with his dad were worse than ever.
He was kicked out of his house and decided to live with his grandfather instead. Around that time he also got the name El Chapo, which was slang for "shorty," since he wasn't a very tall adolescent.
El Chapo Graduated to Organized Crime When He Linked up With His Uncle
El Chapo's uncle Pedro Aviles Perez had a long history in Mexican drug trafficking. He was a celebrity in that right, and at 20 years old El Chapo joined him hoping for greater opportunities than he could build on his marijuana farm.
El Chapo started his work with organized crime in the 1970s with the drug lord Hector "El Guero" Palma. He transported drugs for the Guadalajara Cartel and oversaw shipments from the Sierra Madre region to urban areas around the Mexican-U.S. border. He constantly pushed to smuggle more and more drugs across the border and was tasked with killing smugglers who didn't get their shipments in on time.
El Chapo Married His First Wife in 1977 – and She Became an Integral Part of His Cartel
Though El Chapo's current wife Emma Coronel steers pretty clear of illegal dealings, the drug kingpin's first wife was fully involved. Alejandrina Salazar married El Chapo in 1977 and became deeply involved in his drug dealings. Her involvement was so intense that in 2012, U.S. authorities froze her assets and banned certain American people from conducting business with her.
Alejandrina only stayed married to El Chapo for three years, but they had three sons during that time.
El Chapo's Second Wife Wasn't Really Thrilled About Their Marriage
El Chapo hasn't been one to remain faithful to his wives. Though current wife Emma Coronel supports him despite his infidelity, she wasn't the first wife subjected to the kingpin's wandering eye. When El Chapo was still married to Alejandrina, he fell for Estela Pena, a local bank clerk. He tried relentlessly to woo her and even went as far as to hire a plane to drop flowers over her house. She pretty much ignored him.
After Pena rejected El Chapo, he eventually kidnapped her and took her to a hotel where he forced her into a relationship with him. The (un)happy couple were married three months later. It's unclear what happened to Pena because she hasn't been heard of since their split.
El Chapo Rose in the Ranks of the Cartel After a Major Bust
In 1984, the Mexican military was tipped off by DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. The information he gave them led to a bust of a marijuana plantation owned by the Guadalajara Cartel. Camarena's informant was thought to have come from the inside, and the act of betrayal angered top drug baron Felix Gallardo, who staged the agent's kidnapping, torture, and murder.
This rocked Washington and Mexico leading to a giant manhunt that sent the Cartel into utter turmoil. El Chapo used this to his advantage and took over more drug operations. Eventually, Gallardo agreed to split up his cartel's territories. El Chapo joined as head of the new Sinaloa Cartel and took the Mexicali, San Luis Rio Colorado, and Tecate, Baja Calfornia areas. These areas included two key border crossings from Mexico to California and Arizona. They became the link between the Colombian drug trade and the United States.
El Chapo Married His Third Wife in the Mid-80s, Who's Rumored to Be Involved With the Cartel
In the mid-'80s, El Chapo married his third wife Griselda Guadalupe Lopez. The couple went onto have four children: Edgar, Joaquin, Ovidio, and Griselda Guadalupe. Griselda has been adamantly against allowing her children to "do what their father does" and believes “it is not their fault they are the children of Joaquin Guzman.” This hasn't really stopped them, though. Ovidio has been blacklisted by the U.S. for involvement in the cartel and alleged money laundering and Edgar was sadly killed in a 2008 shoot-out.
In addition, Griselda is thought to be involved in El Chapo's cartel after her home was raided in 2014 by Mexican authorities.
His Mistress Flipped and Revealed the King Pin's Secrets in 2019
In November 2018, El Chapo's latest trial began in the U.S., expected to last four months. In January, the kingpin made headlines again when his newest mistress, Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López, testified in court. Through tears, López told the jury of the three-year relationship she had with the married drug lord, including that she helped him buy hundreds of kilos of marijuana and joined El Chapo during his naked escape via his underground tunnel.
López appeared to be scorned in court as she confessed that she was confused by El Chapo's statements because she thought they were still together. She added that she is ready to turn on her former lover in the hopes that prosecutors will grant her leniency for her cooperation.
El Chapo Hit U.S. Authorities' Radar in 1987
El Chapo managed to remain under the radar for a few years despite his egregious crimes. It was only until 1987 when protected witnesses testified that El Chapo was in charge of the Sinaloa Cartel, that he became known to authorities in the U.S. He received a number of indictments. One alleged he coordinated shipments of 10,400 pounds of cocaine and 4,000 pounds of marijuana in three years.
He was estimated to have made $1.5 million from this deal. Another believed he earned $100,000 for trafficking 70,000 pounds of cocaine over the areas in his border territory – but he didn't act alone. El Chapo required cooperation from crooked customs agents who didn't flag the massive amounts of cash he was flying back and forth. He reportedly bribed the Attorney General's Office to avoid trouble.
El Chapo Was Involved With the First Cartel-Related Beheading After Scrapping With the Tijuana Cartel
In the late '80s and early '90s, El Chapo was not getting along with the Tijuana cartel. Javier Caro Payan, the cousin of a former Guadalajara Cartel leader, fled fearing there would be a coup in the Tijuana Cartel. In fleeing, he was arrested which angered Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel and sparked their massive feud.
Around this time, the first cartel-related beheading was used as a method of intimidation against El Chapo's men. The Tijuana Cartel ordered Venezuelan drug trafficker Enrique Rafael Clavel Morena to infiltrate the family of El Chapo's now partner, El Guero, by sleeping with his wife.
El Chapo Paid Off the Police With $10 Million
Things only escalated when Rafael Clavel Morena withdrew $7 million from El Guero's account, beheaded his wife and sent it to El Guero in a box. Two weeks later, El Guero's children were slaughtered by Moreno causing an all-out war with El Chapo and his men. Though the Mexican Attorney General created a task force to deal with the problem, El Chapo paid off top police officials with $10 million.
The war wouldn't have a reprieve until it led to the unfortunate death of Catholic archbishop.
The Mexican Government Had a $5 Million Bounty on El Chapo in 1993
The war between the Tijuana Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel came to a head in 1993, when 20 gunmen ascended on the Guadalajara International Airport and opened fire at the car they thought was carrying El Chapo. In the crossfire, Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, Cardinal and Archbishop of Guadalajara, was shot 14 times and died from his wounds. Though Guzman escaped, this was the final straw for the Mexican government who put out a $5 million bounty on the heads of anyone involved. This is when El Chapo rose to mainstream fame – his face was plastered across TV and newspapers across Mexico.
El Chapo feared for the worst and fled to Mexico City where he gave one his associates $200 million to take care of his family in case of his absence. He gave just as much to a colleague to run the Sinaloa Cartel in case of his incarceration.
El Chapo Championed The Renowned System Of Underground Tunnels Used By The Cartel
You know the drug tunnels featured in numerous drug-related TV shows like Weeds? El Chapo created those. His unique, sophisticated network of underground tunnels helped transport thousands of pounds of drugs across the United States border. In addition, the drug kingpin was a master at stealthily masking drug shipments. He regularly packed cocaine into chili pepper cans labeled with the brand "La Comrade" to go undetected when he shipped them to the U.S. via trains.
El Chapo's drug shipments came to the U.S. every way possible – through the air, by train, through underground tunnels. He was a force to be reckoned with, and even prison was not a match for him.
El Chapo Was Arrested In 1993, But Lived Large In Prison Thanks To Hefty Bribes
The Mexican government's initiative worked and El Chapo was arrested for the first time on June 9, 1993. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking, criminal association and bribery (which he didn't end up serving after he boldly escaped).
While El Chapo was in prison, he lived like a king and prison guards were more like servants. Thanks to associates who brought in hefty cash bribes to prison workers, El Chapo maintained his luxurious lifestyle behind bars. At this time, El Chapo's cartel was the wealthiest, most powerful cartel in Mexico.
His Room Looked Like a Fancy Hotel and He Had Access to Prostitutes
El Chapo's penchant for bribes helped transform his dingy prison cell into a five-star hotel suite. Throughout his stay in the Mexican jail, he wasn't held to the same rules as other prisoners. He was allowed visits from women and prostitutes. He even (possibly) fell in love.
The cartel kingpin had access to whatever drug he wanted, though, his wives report that the drug lord didn't actually ever use his business' billion-dollar product. Some reports described his sentence as a "party," but either way, he wasn't about to stay there if he didn't have to.
While in Prison, El Chapo Took a Former Police Officer as a Lover
Between 1993 and 2001, while El Chapo hadn't yet escaped prison, he fell for a fellow inmate named Zulema Hernandez. Hernandez was a former police officer who switched to the other side. She was serving time for participating and aiding drug trade, and fondly described her relationship with the violent kingpin. She believed the pair identified with each other because of their backgrounds.
According to Hernandez, he didn't just want to fool around. He actually emotionally supported her. Unfortunately, Hernandez was brutally killed by a rival cartel after she was released from prison. The Zetas carved the letter Z into her breasts and behind to mark their victim.
El Chapo Escaped His Top-Security Prison in 2001
There's pretty much nothing money won't get you. Thanks to hefty bribes, El Chapo was able to move his cartel's headquarters into Puente Grande, his maximum security prison. Thanks to bribing, he also staged a bold escape in 2001. A bribed guard named Francisco Camberos Rivera (aka El Chito) opened El Chapo's cell and helped him climb into a cart filled with dirty laundry.
The pair headed down the hallway (which lacked guards) and wide-open electronic doors before reaching the indoor parking lot. Only one guard was on duty in the parking lot where El Chapo jumped out of the laundry cart and into the trunk of a Chevrolet. It would be years before El Chapo was captured again.
A Whopping 78 People Were Linked to His Escape and It Cost an Estimated $2.5 Million
Though El Chapo's escape may have seemed easy peasy, it was actually a huge operation. Police consider El Chapo the mastermind of his own escape plan. He influenced the prison staff drastically. In fact, the prison's director is currently serving time for aiding in the escape. A prison guard who reported the situation was mysteriously found dead years later. No one was safe if they didn't join in.
The prison guards helped El Chapo smuggle contraband into the guarded walls. In addition, police in the surrounding area were paid off to ensure that the kingpin had at least 24 hours to leave the state before the military hopped in and started their manhunt. All in all, the escape was thought to have cost about $2.5 million – a small price for El Chapo's short-lived freedom.
After His Escape, El Chapo Became the Most Wanted Man in Mexico
After El Chapo managed to escape from a top-security prison thanks to a few strategic bribes, the military and federal police launched a years-long manhunt. He became the most wanted man in Mexico and became a sort of legendary figure in Mexico narcotics folklore.
Stories popped up of the ever-elusive runaway casually walking into restaurants, having his bodyguards confiscate the cellphones of everyone inside the restaurant, then picking up the whole place's tab after he finished his meal. Rumors of random appearances plagued Mexico for 13 years – but law enforcement couldn't find him.
Shortly After His Escape, El Chapo Became A Major Player In Methamphetamine Trade
The Sinaloa Cartel was a joint venture between El Chapo and Ismael Zambada García. When he launched his methamphetamine business, he didn't take his partner with him. Moving mass amounts of meth was rather easy for El Chapo after the Amezcua brothers, who founded the Colima Cartel, lost their empire to meth charges in 1999.
There was a hole in leadership that helped coordinate meth shipments through Mexico and El Chapo took it because he could easily mix meth into his booming cocaine business. El Chapo helped construct a giant meth lab and reached out to contacts across the country until he was operating in 17 out of 31 Mexican states.
El Chapo's Drug Empire Eventually Linked Five Continents
El Chapo's operations mainly occurred in Mexico, South and Central America and The United States. His methamphetamine operations finally bridged Asia. He fostered connections in Thailand, India and China to help import materials to make meth. El Chapo was finally global.
He was trafficking heroin, marijuana, and meth all over the world. With the addition of methamphetamine, El Chapo's drug operations were the biggest on the entire planet and he's thought to be responsible for almost half of all the drugs in America. Throughout the years, his cartel has been accused of committing over 1,000 murders.
El Chapo's Drug Empire Made Him a Billionaire
By 2014, the United States Department of Treasury considered El Chapo the "most powerful drug trafficker in the world." It's estimated that he was worth a whopping $1 billion in 2011 and was the 10th richest man in Mexico. The DEA estimates that he was even more powerful than famed drug lord Pablo Escobar, and in 2013, the Chicago Crime Commission named him "Public Enemy Number One." That honor was last given to Al Capone in 1930.
In 2009, El Chapo was recognized in mainstream media for his illicit success. Forbes recognized him on their list of billionaires.
Despite His Billions, He Lived Rather Modestly
El Chapo mostly abandoned his lavish lifestyle because it brought too much attention to himself. He was wanted not only by the Mexican and U.S. authorities, but other cartels. In order to lay low, he lived a very normal life. At one point, he determined that his safe houses weren't safe and moved his family to a middle-class fourth floor apartment in the center of the city. He was eventually discovered there, like he feared.
Throughout his life, El Chapo's right-hand men insist that the kingpin's lifestyle isn't lavish, and when he attracts attention to himself, it's not normal. He did, however, take care of his mother and buy her the beautiful home picture above.
El Chapo Was Really Healthy And Didn't Actually Do Drugs
Maybe it was part of his father's alcoholism that steered him away from doing drugs and alcohol, but El Chapo's wives attested to the fact that the drug kingpin never partook in the illicit activities he helped fund.
According to one of his anonymous wives, "He didn't do drugs himself. He didn't drink. He wanted to keep his mind and his body healthy. He would take vitamins. He was a very violent man so everybody was intimidated by him. He didn't have to yell. He would just study people and it's like he was looking right through them."
El Chapo Married The 17-Year-Old Daughter Of A Cartel Kingpin
El Chapo has a thing for beautiful women and loves to keep things in his crime family. The kingpin has been married four times (and been known to enjoy more than a couple prostitutes). In 2007, the Cartel leader married Emma Coronel, the daughter of a fellow cartel kingpin.
Just because El Chapo has had numerous divorces doesn't mean he's on bad terms with his former wives. In fact, he's kept close contact with his first wife which led him into trouble when his connections were bugged later in life.
El Chapo's Wife Is a Beauty Queen (But Some Question Her Crown's Legitimacy)
Emma Coronel announced her plans to marry 50-something drug kingpin El Chapo while she was on the campaign to be Miss Coffee and Guava 2007. The American-born wife is a full-on beauty queen. She was crowned Miss Coffee and Guava and won 400 out of 800 votes.
Some people think the cartel had a whole lot to do with her win because hundreds of black-clad gunmen on motorcycles flooded the town where the competition was held, along with El Chapo, who brought his own gunmen along with him. These gunmen hosted a lavish party for judges and Coronel mysteriously won the competition.
It's Actually a Long-Standing Tradition For Cartel Leaders Marry Beauty Queens
The tradition of cartel leaders marrying beauty queens goes back half a century. It started in 1958 when the nephew of Mafia Boss Sam Gianca married Miss Sinaloa. Of course, Kenya Kemmermand Bastidas was a legitimate beauty queen and won long before her mafia ties. Bastidas was found murdered in her Italian home in 1960 (the Italian mafia didn't take so kindly to one of their own marrying a Mexican).
Following Bastida's marriage, Ana Victoria Santanares, Miss Sinaloa 1967, married cartel boss Ernesto Carillo. She eventually moved to Colombia, fearing for her children's safety, and Carillo was convicted in participating in the torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camerena shortly after.
El Chapo is a Fan of Anchor Babies – and He Had Twins in 2011
The drug kingpin knows his way around the law and is rather clever about how he navigates loopholes. Emma Coronel was already a U.S. citizen, but in 2011, El Chapo ordered her to go to California to give birth to their children so his offspring could be citizens. Coronel isn't a stranger to the concept of anchor babies. She's an anchor baby from a fellow cartel leader, herself. While traveling over the border, U.S. authorities actually tried to stop her to prevent her from having these children with U.S. citizenship.
They didn't have formal charges to file, so she was let go. When Coronel had her twins, she left the last name on their birth certificates blank to make them harder for authorities to track. It's clear Coronel is used to a life in the cartel, and her street smarts may just be a match for El Chapo's.
El Chapo Almost Escaped Arrest in 2014 by Hiding in a Secret Network of Tunnels
El Chapo spent over a decade successfully skirting police and hiding away in the Sierre Madre mountains. He got a little comfortable and started venturing out to nearby towns, which were notably less remote. He even attended a family reunion in Sinaloa a week before his looming arrest. It was his body guards who turned him in. One of El Chapo's bodyguards led Mexican military to Guzman's ex-wife's home, where El Chapo was hiding away.
They spent enough time trying to ram down the steel-reinforced door that the drug kingpin escaped into a series of secret tunnels that connected six houses (like stated before, El Chapo loved his network of tunnels). He followed the tunnels to Mazatlan where he wanted to spend time with his twins before he went back into hiding in the mountains.
It Took 54 Marines and 10 Mexican Navy Trucks To Finally Arrest Him
Though El Chapo was hiding in his intense tunnel network, authorities were closing in. The Mexican Navy linked up with the DEA and U.S. Marshals Service to raid several Sinaloa Cartel properties.
The day El Chapo was finally arrested, the Mexican Navy rolled up in 10 pickup trucks carrying 65 marines, who flooded the Miramar condominiums where the kingpin was hiding. They found El Chapo in bed with his wife, Emma Coronel. His arrest was considered a major win for law enforcement – but it was notably short-lived.
A Year and a Half After His Arrest, El Chapo Escaped Mexico' Top-Security Prison – Again
In 2015, a year and a half after his second arrest, El Chapo managed to escape Mexico's top-security prison yet again. At this point, the game of cat and mouse between the drug lord and authorities was comical. It was like a Tom and Jerry episode.
El Chapo was last seen in the shower area of the prison. It happened to be the only part of his cell that wasn't visible by security cameras. Guards went looking for him after he was missing from surveillance video for almost a half hour. It was found that El Chapo escaped through a tunnel (of course) which led from the shower to a construction site about 1.5 kilometers away. He used a ladder to climb 10 feet down into the tunnel and escape yet again.
El Chapo Hopped Back On Twitter Right After His Escape And Taunted Donald Trump
In this day and age, drug lords use Twitter. You seriously can't make this stuff up. El Chapo is a prominent Twitter user and hopped right back on the service as soon as he escaped from prison. It was a bold move – but he's a bold guy. The dude even threatened Donald Trump, who in turn, threatened him back. How bizarre?
The tweet translates to "If you keep [expletive] me off I'm going to make you eat your words you [expletive] blonde milk-[expletive]." You get the idea. El Chapo isn't the only one in the family on the social network. His son Jesus Alfredo boasted about his father's escape in a tweet. He wrote, "My father just has to want it, and he escapes from prison." Regrettably, Jesus isn't wrong.
Three of El Chapos Sons Are in on the Family Business
El Chapo's sons followed in their father's footsteps and helped out with the family business (the Sinaloa Cartel). Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo, who El Chapo fathered with his first wife, and Ovidio, who El Chapo fathered with his third wife Griselda Guadalupe Lopez, are currently on the U.S. government's radar for their illicit activity.
They have had various documents filed against them by the U.S. Justice and Treasury departments over the last decade, and the trio is thought to have been involved with money laundering and drug trafficking – just like dad!
Ivan Archivaldo Is The Most Notorious Of El Chapo's 13 Children
Ivan Archivaldo is the most notorious of El Chapo's children. He has been accused of transporting multiple kilos of cocaine and actual tons – tons – of marijuana from Mexico to the U.S. He then was thought to have laundered the money he made in the U.S. from selling these drugs and transferred it to Mexico to benefit the Sinaloa cartel.
In 2005, Ivan Archivaldo was arrested and spent three years in a Mexican prison. His brother Jesus, who was indicted in 2009, has never been arrested though he is undoubtedly involved in the Cartel.
El Chapo Was Romantically Linked To Mexican Actress Kate Del Castillo
Despite El Chapo's beauty queen wife, the drug lord has been romantically linked to Mexican actress (and full-blown celebrity) Kate del Castillo. Del Castillo has vehemently denied any relationship with the drug lord (as any working actress and law-abiding citizen probably should).
That didn't stop a Mexican newspaper from obtaining and printing flirty messages allegedly between the pair. The messages were confirmed by local authorities who revealed that she was given a secret Blackberry just to talk to the drug lord. In the chats, she celebrated his escape from jail.
El Chapo Was Finally Arrested Again In 2016 During Operation Black Swan
The government was pulling out every stop to catch El Chapo after he escaped the second time. After Mexican citizens reported a number of "armed people" in a house on the coast of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, the home was put under surveillance for a month. After surveilling the home, police believed the residents were preparing for El Chapo's return.
On the morning of January 8, 2016, the home was raided by 17 marines from the Mexican Navy Special Forces, in addition to widespread support from the Mexican Army and Federal Police. The raid was codenamed Operation Black Swan and Federal Police finally captured El Chapo after he escaped to yet another secret tunnel hidden behind a mirror closet. Federal Police arrested the drug lord in a stolen vehicle 20 kilometers south of Los Mochis.
El Chapo's Trial Started in November 2018 and He's Struggling to Pay Legal Fees
Following his arrest, El Chapo remains jailed in the United States. In January of 2017, the kingpin pled not guilty to a 17-count indictment which included money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in numerous cities across the U.S. His started in November 2018, and prosecutors requested juror anonymity because El Chapo has a history of slaughtering jurors and witnesses.
Despite El Chapo's billions, his assets were frozen and he's been struggling to pay his legal fees. He is eagerly awaiting to address court directly in order to tell his family to pay the fees for him. El Chapo's lawyer Eduardo Balarezo claims the drug lord refuses to plead guilty and cooperate with American authorities. He wants to go to trial and will not cut a deal.
It's Estimated That El Chapo's Drug Operations Brought In $20 Billion A Year
El Chapo's net worth is thought to be around $2 to $4 billion, and the drug lord reportedly personally brings in about $1 billion a year. The business his cartel brings in so, so much greater. A specialist who spoke to Forbes claimed El Chapo's cartel probably brought in around $20 billion a year, but most of that went right back into the business. That didn't stop U.S. authorities from demanding the forfeiture of "more than $14 billion in drug proceeds and illicit profits" from the kingpin. The question is – does he actually have it?
Currently the U.S. and Mexico are fighting over the drug lord's alleged $16 billion of assets. All countries that participated in El Chapo's capture are entitled to split his confiscated assets – which some argue is more than enough to pay for Donald Trump's planned border wall.
