by Oge Okonkwo
Joaquin Guzman is the billionaire head of a mexico drug cartel as was branded as the world’s most-wanted drug baron before his arrest.
Guzman also knows as ‘Shorty’ was worth $1 bn as at the time of his arrest with a $5 million bounty on his head before he was arrested in Mexico at a beach resort town.
The drug lord was considered extremely violent and dangerous as is responsible for over 10,000 people.
NY Daily News reports:
Considered an urban legend in Mexico, Guzman has placed on Forbes’ list of billionaires and was named Chicago’s No. 1 Public Enemy last year. “Not since the Chicago Crime Commission’s first Public Enemy No. 1 has any criminal deserved this title more than Joaquin Guzman,” said J.R. Davis, president of 94-year-old Chicago Crime Commission.
Nicknamed “El Chapo” (Shorty) for his 5-foot, 6-inch frame, Guzman’s bloody cartel is responsible for supplying much of the multi-ton shipments of heroin, marijuana and meth that enters the U.S. from Mexico.
The DEA calls him the “godfather of the drug world.” His worth is estimated at $1 billion.
Arguably the most feared kingpin in Mexico, Guzman, 59, was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and extradited to Mexico, where he was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on narcotics trafficking charges.
![Police officers surround pickup truck with the burned bodies of several people in Sinaloa, the home state of the country's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, in 2011. The victims were believed to be casualties of a narcotics war between Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel and rivals.]()
Police officers surround pickup truck with the burned bodies of several people in Sinaloa, the home state of the country’s most powerful drug lord, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, in 2011. The victims were believed to be casualties of a narcotics war between Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel and rivals.
In an audacious 2001 escape, Guzman bribed dozens of federal prison guards, who hid him in a laundry basket and walked him out the front door. He had been on the lam ever since.
Mexican and U.S. authorities gave little information about Friday night’s capture except to say it occurred in Mazatlan and was a joint operation by both countries.
The subject of many “narcorrido” folk songs, Guzman is a grade-school dropout who entered the drug world at age 15, rising through the criminal ranks to become head of the Sinaloa Cartel, the largest crime syndicate in Mexico.
![The Sinaloa Cartel warred with rival syndicates in Ciudad Juarez for control of the border town. This 2009 crime scene photo shows bullet holes from shootout on a city street.]()
The Sinaloa Cartel warred with rival syndicates in Ciudad Juarez for control of the border town. This 2009 crime scene photo shows bullet holes from shootout on a city street.
The ring has used small planes, 747 jumbo jets, boats, railroad cars and vast tunnels running under the border to smuggle narcotics into foreign countries, most of it bound for the United States.
His storied empire was built with help from relatives. His son, Edgar, was killed in a shootout in 2008.
The famous outlaw had managed to elude arrest, despite living in plain sight, many complained.
In 2005, the fugitive walked into a restaurant in Colonia Las Quintas, after bodyguards armed with AK-47s told patrons to remain in their seats and continue eating.
“A man is going to come in, the boss. We ask that you remain in your seats; the doors will close and nobody is allowed to leave … Do not worry; if you do everything that is asked of you, nothing will happen. Continue eating and don’t ask for your check. The boss will pay,” one of the guards told diners, according to George W. Grayson’s 2011 book “Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?”
