Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal organization named after the Mexican Pacific coast state of Sinaloa where it was formed. He is known as “El Chapo” (“Shorty”) for his 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) stature and stocky physique, and he became Mexico’s top drug kingpin in 2003 after the arrest of his rival Osiel Cárdenas Guillén of the Gulf Cartel. He was considered the “most powerful drug trafficker in the world” by the United States Department of the Treasury.
Each year from 2009 to 2011, Forbes magazine ranked Guzmán as one of the most powerful people in the world, ranking him 41st, 60th, and 55th, respectively. He was thus the second most powerful man in Mexico, after Carlos Slim. The magazine also calls him the “biggest drug lord of all time.” The U.S. federal government considers Guzmán “the most ruthless, dangerous, and feared man on the planet” and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimated that he matched the influence and reach of Pablo Escobar and considered him “the godfather of the drug world”.
Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel transports multi-ton cocaine shipments from Colombia through Mexico to the United States, the world’s top consumer, and has distribution cells throughout the U.S. The organization has been involved in the production, smuggling, and distribution of Mexican methamphetamine, marijuana, ecstasy (MDMA) and heroin throughout America and Europe. By the time of his 2014 arrest, Guzmán had exported more drugs to the USA than any other trafficker, including more than 500 tons (500,000 kg) of cocaine in the U.S. alone.
Guzmán was first captured in 1993 in Guatemala and was extradited and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico for murder and drug trafficking. He bribed prison guards and escaped from a federal maximum-security prison in 2001. He was wanted by the governments of Mexico and the United States and by INTERPOL. He was arrested a second time in Mexico on 22 February 2014, found inside a fourth-floor condominium in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and was captured without any gunshots. Guzmán escaped again in July 2015 through a 1.5 km (0.93 mi) tunnel that led to a construction site. He was recaptured by Mexican marines and Federal Police following a shoot-out on 8 January 2016. He was extradited to the United States on 19 January 2017 to face criminal charges related to his leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Guzmán was found guilty of all counts by a jury in Brooklyn on 12 February 2019, and was sentenced on 17 July 2019 to life in prison plus 30 years and ordered to forfeit more than $12.6 billion. He is likely to serve this sentence in ADX Florence, the nation’s most secure supermax prison.
Link to Wikipedia biography