Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, considered the most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world. He began his career in the drug trade as a teenager in Sinaloa, Mexico. By the late 1980s, he had risen to lead the Sinaloa cartel, growing it into a multi-billion dollar global operation. Guzmán orchestrated daring prison escapes in 2001 and 2015 but was recaptured both times. He faces drug trafficking charges in the U.S. and remains imprisoned as of early 2017.

1. Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera
Biography.com
Drug Dealer, Organized Crime(1957–)
Quick Facts
Name
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera
Occupation
Drug Dealer, Organized Crime
Birth Date
April 4, 1957 (age 60)
Place of Birth
Badiraguato, Mexico
Full Name
Joaquín Guzmán Loera
Nicknames
El Chapo
Shorty
Zodiac Sign
Aries
Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka "El Chapo," is head of the Sinaloa cartel, the
world's most powerful drug-trafficking organization.
Synopsis
Born in Badiraguato, Mexico, Joaquín Guzmán Loera entered the drug trade as a teenager.
Nicknamed "El Chapo," he founded the Sinaloa cartel in 1989, over time building it into an
immensely profitable global drug-trafficking operation. Known for his violent actions and
powerful influence, Guzmán has successfully orchestrated daring escapes from maximum-
security prisons in his home country. One such escape came in July 2015, although he was
recaptured the following January in the Mexican city of Los Mochis.
Early Years
Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera was born in the rural Mexican town of
Badiraguato. The date of his birth is believed to be April 4, 1957, according to Time
magazine, although other outlets list December 25, 1954, as his birthday. Guzmán’s
childhood was shaped by his family’s poverty and his abusive father, a violent man who was
in the drug trade.
By his teens, Guzmán had been kicked out of the family home and was forced to make his
own way. With little schooling in his background, he eventually found himself following his
father's path, growing marijuana for small amounts of cash.

2. Rise to Power
By the late 1970s, Guzmán had proven his value in the narcotics business and begun working
with another rising young dealer named Héctor Luis Palma Salazar. Guzmán oversaw the
movement of drugs from his home district of Sinaloa, a crucial drug trafficking area on the
western end of Mexico where narcotics flowed north to coastal cities and into the United
States.
By his late 20s, the quiet but savvy Guzmán, whose 5'6" frame had earned him the nickname,
“El Chapo” ("Shorty"), was supervising logistics for another drug kingpin, Miguel Ángel
Félix Gallardo, founder of the Guadalajara cartel. Guzmán kept a low profile, but when his
boss was eventually arrested for the 1985 murder of an American Drug Enforcement Agency
agent, he quickly emerged as one of the new faces of the Mexican drug world.
Drug Kingpin
Inheriting some of his former boss’s territory, Guzmán founded his own cartel, known as
Sinaloa, in 1989. By the early 1990s, Guzmán was on the radar of the DEA and FBI and
considered one of Mexico's most powerful and dangerous drug traffickers.
As the power of the Colombian drug cartels like Medellin and Cali began to wane, Sinaloa
was among the Mexican organizations filling the void. Under Guzmán’s direction, it took
control of the cocaine trade extending from South America to the United States.
Part of the success stemmed from Sinaloa’s creative smuggling methods, most notably a
series of air-conditioned tunnels that ran under the Mexican-U.S. border. Another method
involved hiding cocaine powder inside fire extinguishers and cans that were labeled “chili
peppers.”
"What Al Capone was to beer and whiskey during Prohibition, Guzmán is to narcotics,"
said Art Bilek, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission. "Of the two,
Guzmán is by far the greater threat . . .And he has more power and financial capability
than Capone everdreamed of."
In addition to cocaine, Sinaloa trafficked heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into the
U.S. and beyond. Eventually, the cartel’s tentacles touched five continents and grew to be the
biggest drug operation in the world.
Guzmán coupled that success with serious muscle. He established gangs with names such as
“Los Chachos,” "Los Texas,” “Los Lobos” and “Los Negros” to protect his empire. Over the
years, Guzmán’s men have been accused of committing more than 1,000 murders throughout
Mexico, the casualties including both incompetent henchmen and rival bosses.

3. (Photo: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg via Getty Images) READ ARTICLE: Thug Life: The 5
Most Notorious Drug Kingpins
Arrests and Escapes
In 1993, Guatemalan authorities arrested Guzmán and extradited him to Mexico, where he
was convicted and sentenced to a maximum-security prison for 20 years.
Even behind bars, however, Guzmán maintained his power. Through bribes he arranged for
conjugal visits and was largely allowed to run his drug operation. With his near-mythical lore
already established in Mexico — many villages in his home district saw Guzmán as a Robin
Hood-like figure — his legend grew in 2001 when, with the help of bribed prison guards, he
escaped prison via a laundry cart. A federal investigation led to the arrest of 71 prison
employees, including the warden.
On the lam but not out of the drug business, Guzmán only tightened his control and expanded
his fortunes over the next decade and a half. In 2009, Sinaloa was reportedly pulling in $3
billion annually, putting Guzmán’s net worth at around $1 billion. That earned him the No.
701 ranking on the Forbes list of the world's richest people.

4. Guzmán quickly became the No. 1 drug target of the U.S. government, which offered a $5
million reward for information that led to his arrest. In 2012, the U.S. authorities froze the
American assets of his family members.
An aggressive assault on drug cartels started by the Mexican government in 2006 failed to
uncover Guzmán, who moved freely around his country. He even got married during that time
period, celebrating the event with a large party that included police officers and local
politicians among the guests. In all, it is believed Guzmán has married at least three times and
is the father of nine children.
In February 2014, Guzmán was finally apprehended in a hotel in the Pacific beach town of
Mazatlán, Mexico. Declining requests by American officials to have Guzmán extradited to the
United States, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto vowed that Guzmán wouldn’t escape
again.
“[It] would be more than regrettable,” Nieto said at the time, “It would be unforgivable for the
government not to take the precautions to ensure that what happened last time would not be
repeated.”
Yet, less than 18 months later, Guzmán orchestrated a second daring flight from prison in July
2015. For this escape, Guzmán slipped through an opening in his cell’s shower section, made
his way down a 30-foot ladder, and then traveled through a tunnel network that connected his
cell to a house that was still under construction about a mile away.
On October 17, 2015, Guzmán was reportedly injured on his face and leg when escaping a
failed military manhunt to capture him in the mountains of northwest Mexico. Around that
same time, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, he conducted a secret interview with
American actor Sean Penn. Guzmán wanted to make a movie about his life, and managed to
connect to Penn via Mexican actress Kate del Castillo.
Recaptured
On January 8, 2016, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto announced on Twitter that
Mexican authorities had recaptured Guzmán after a shootout earlier that morning in the city of
Los Mochis.
"Mission Accomplished," the President wrote. "We have him."
The drug lord's apprehension came one day before his interview with Penn was published on
Rolling Stone's website. It was unclear whether his communication with the actor contributed
to his capture, although Mexican authorities cited the monitoring of his electronic exchanges
as helpful to the process.
Guzmán was returned to the same prison from which he escaped the previous summer. He has
since been moved to a facility near the U.S border in Juarez, Mexico where he continues to
face the possibility of being extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for numerous federal drug
trafficking charges. That October, Vicente Bermudez Zacarias, the judge presiding
over Guzmán's case, was murdered near his home.

5. On January 19, 2017, the Mexican government extradited Guzmán to the United States to
face drug trafficking and other charges. The following day Guzmán appeared in U.S. Federal
Court in Brooklyn, New York, and pleaded not guilty to over a dozen charges. A hearing was
scheduled for February 3.