World’s most powerful drug lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman captured
By Associated PressFebruary 22, 2014 | 11:39am

World’s most powerful drug lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman captured
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman

MEXICO CITY — The head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel was captured overnight by U.S. and Mexican authorities at a hotel in Mazatlan, Mexico, the Associated Press has learned.

A senior U.S. law enforcement official said Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was taken alive overnight in the beach resort town. The official was not authorized to discuss the arrest and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Guzman, 56, faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.

Known as a legendary outlaw, Mexico’s Osama bin Laden and the world’s most powerful and elusive drug lord, Guzman had been pursued for weeks, the official said.
Guzman’s capture ended a long and storied manhunt. He was rumored to live everywhere from Argentina to Guatemala since he slipped out in 2001 from prison in a laundry truck — a storied feat that fed his larger-than-life persona. Because insiders aided his escape, rumors circulated for years that he was helped and protected by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s government, which vanquished some of his top rivals.
In more than a decade on the run, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. His fortune has grown to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the “World’s Most Powerful People” and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.
His Sinaloa Cartel grew bloodier and more powerful, taking over much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border, including such prized cities as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Guzman’s play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. In little more than a year, Mexico’s biggest marijuana bust, 134 tons, and its biggest cultivation were tied to Sinaloa, as were a giant underground methamphetamine lab in western Mexico and hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals seized in Mexico and Guatemala.
His cartel’s tentacles now extend as far as Australia thanks to a sophisticated, international distribution system for cocaine and methamphetamines.
Guzman did all that with a $7 million bounty on his head and while evading thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries devoted to his capture. A U.S. federal indictment unsealed in San Diego in 1995 charges Guzman and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import over eight tons of cocaine and money laundering. A provisional arrest warrant was issued as a result of the indictment, according to the state department.
Guzman is still celebrated in folk songs and is said to have enjoyed deep protection from humble villagers in the rugged hills of Sinaloa and Durango where he has hidden from authorities. He is also thought to have contacts inside law enforcement that helped him evade capture, including a near-miss in February 2012 in the southern Baja California resort of Cabo San Lucas just after an international meeting of foreign ministers. He was vacationing in Cabo during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“There’s no drug-trafficking organization in Mexico with the scope, the savvy, the operational ability, expertise and knowledge as the Sinaloa cartel,” said one former U.S. law enforcement official, who couldn’t be quoted by name for security reasons. “You’ve kind of lined yourself up the New York Yankees of the drug trafficking world.”
More than 70,000 people have been killed in drug violence since former President Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to drug hotspots upon taking office on Dec. 1, 2006. Many say his government’s assault on drug cartels and arrest of kingpins actually fueled the growth of Sinaloa and its major rival, the Zetas, which are now going head-to-heard for lucrative territory.
The two are battling for Nuevo Laredo, a play Guzman lost to the Zetas in 2005, and hitting each other deep inside their respective territories. Sinaloa took over a key Zeta port in Veracruz, while bands of Zetas have attacked their rival deep inside the cartel’s home, western Sinaloa and Jalisco states.
The conflict has led to the gruesome dumping of dozens of bodies by both organizations in their battlegrounds.
Guzman was named Chicago’s Public Enemy No. 1 in February, 2013.

Authorities said the battle also weakened the Sinaloa cartel and that key hits on the top leadership in Guzman’s organization had shaken up his inner circle. In the first months of 2012, the Mexican army and federal police arrested a half dozen key Sinaloa people, including two major cocaine suppliers and a man described as the head of Guzman’s security detail.
In April last year, a video made the rounds on the Internet of a man whom U.S. authorities believed was Guzman, possibly indicating a security breach in his inner circle. In 2012, Colombian police seized 116 properties worth $15 million that they say were bought for Guzman, while the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was placing financial sanctions on a wife and several of his sons.
While his capture may have symbolic importance, many, including Guzman’s cartel partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, say it won’t stop the violence or flow of drugs through Mexico to the United States.
“When it comes to the capos, jailed, dead or extradited — their replacements are ready,” Zambada said in an exclusive interview published in Proceso magazine in April 2010.
Guzman’s success and infamy surpassed Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, who was gunned down by police in 1993 after waging a decade-long reign of terror in the South American country, killing hundreds of police, judges, journalists and politicians.
Growing up poor, Guzman was drawn to the money being made by the flow of illegal drugs through his home state of Sinaloa.
He joined the Guadalajara cartel, run by Mexican Godfather Miguel Angel Gallardo, and rose quickly through the ranks as a ruthless businessman and skilled networker, making key contacts with politicians and police to ensure his loads made it through without problems.
After Gallardo was arrested in 1989, the gang split, and Guzman took control of Sinaloa’s operations.
The Sinaloa cartel violently seized lucrative drug routes from rivals and built sophisticated tunnels under the U.S. border to move its loads.
In 1993, gunmen linked to the Tijuana-based Arrellano Felix cartel attempted to assassinate Guzman at the Guadalajara airport but instead killed Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, outraging Mexicans.
Police arrested Guzman weeks later before his escape from El Puente Grande prison in 2001. At the time of his escape, Guzman had been serving a 20-year sentence for bribery and criminal association in a maximum-security prison in Mexico.
He was rumored to have once entered a restaurant in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, where his henchmen confiscated every patron’s cellphone so their boss could eat without fear of an ambush. He was also rumored to have staged an elaborate public wedding in 2007 to an 18-year-old bride that was attended by officials and local police.
Federal police say they raided the town that day, but got there just a few hours too late.
Guzman had long been reported to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles.
His location was part of Mexican folklore, with rumors circulating of him being everywhere from Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its “Golden Triangle,” a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.
An archbishop in northern Durango state said in April 2009 that Guzman lived in a town nearby. Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain army lieutenants with a note: “Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo.”

Holy shit good post. I gotta be honest I thought they were never gonna catch him.

Why was his shirt off in the picture? That is kind of strange..

This is incredible. This guy is the most legendary druglord since Escobar

Chicago DEA head is already calling dibs on him.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/25762567-418/mexicos-sinaloa-drug-chief-arrested.html

He might have been sleeping when they raided his residence.

Like I've been, Sinaloa is the most powerful "mafia" in Chicago these days

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2014/02/mexicos-sinaloa-drug-chief-el-chapo.html?m=1



Holy shit this is huge.look 4the zetasto start pushn 4 territory

Wow this is amazing. I was just watching a documentary on him yesterday. This is really big news. Thank you very much this is my first time hearing it.

I cant understand why there isnt more carel topics on here.its really interesting whats goin on.fuckn crazy and brutal but interesting. Its bn rumored that chapo and el mayo were about to split and start fighting.guess not now.with everything chapo has on corrupt politicians and d.e.a and the rest of the alohabet boys i figured he would be killed

yea right? I can't believe it. this is huge. I thought you have to be kidding, but today's not april 1st so it must be real.

good point. I think there's a good bit of xenophobia on this forum,when it concerns Mexican cartels. Ive brought up the example of roy demeo before. someone like demeo,who was notorious for his methods of body disposal and a high body count. he's given undue adulation,while in mexico there are literally 100's of roy demeos in the news everyday. b ut they aren't given the same reverence by posters here.

Fucking crazy just saw it on the news. Thought he'd really never be caught considering how corrupt Mexico is and the billions Chapo sits on. Let the heads start rolling oh wait heads have been rolling since the war on drugs

Im not too surprised he got caught. Hes had 13 years on the run i think that is a little more than osama.

new mex president cant be bought out for now it seems haha. this is a whale going down for sure. the story is, he started to come out of his hideouts in the mountains to enjoy some nights at coastal resort towns. his house in sinaloa, had a network of underground tunnels which connected him to 7 homes. the trap door was in the bathroom shower. either way, they caught some people close to his inner circle who told him that his fatal mistake was coming out to enjoy the beach. than he was in trouble

It is weird though that he got caught with 1 female and no type of security. When he has been rumored to travel with a crew of 20 cars and suv's all bulletproofed and ready for war.
Because of all the ongoing violence and brutality in Mexico allegedly caused by the cartels and Chapo being in the middle of that. I'm sure no one thought that he would have been captured without a single bullet being fired in either direction.
But again I will say very big news and very interested to see what unfolds in the next few months.
I wonder if the violence will escalate over a power struggle. Also wonder what and if Chapo will talk about anything. We will see.

"he's given undue adulation,while in mexico there are literally 100's of roy demeos in the news everyday. b ut they aren't given the same reverence by posters here"

Adulation? Reverence? I don't think that Roy Demeo has received that form anyone here and if you think that a bunch of cartel serial murderers and drug pushers deserve it, then you're fucking sick.

he did have three body guards with him at the time of his capture. I think a lot of his top guys have been getting busted recently as well, which may have left him kind of vulnerable. Im guessing if he goes away for the rest of his life sinoloa is probably gonna split up into different groups. Anything can happen before any court proceedings even take place.

Thank you for the info.

is he coming to America to stand trial/ or they gonna build him his own little jail like escobar in mexico. guess mmd is up next. they got Osama,whitey,el chapo. the Italy police want some headlines.

I wonder if he goes walkies again before they manage to get him to America. Time will tell but it sure is going to be interesting to see what happens with him.

I guess all the italians he sells to taught him a thing or2 with the bunkers under your house and tunnels to dif places.they busted a bodyguard on the 1st floir who immediately pointed them to chapos room on the 4th floor.that guys whole family will be dead.lol his cell is also rite beside a big time zeta named el hummer

I think that there are multiple states in the US that are trying to nail him so there is a very good chance that will bring him here. But until he is completely locked down I won't believe it until I see it.

If they keep him in Mexico there is a very good chance that he will bribe his way right out of prison like he did last time. He has too much power and influence over a lot of people for him to go as quiet as it's been going. So I think that shit could possibly hit the fan but then again nothing at all can happen.

Wow this is monumental to Mexico. I think things are about to get bloody and the major players will be making moves for power.

‘El Mayo’ the successor to captured cartel boss Guzman
Monday 24th February 2014


Ismael Zambada, aka 'El Mayo'
THIS is the gang boss set to take over from captured Mexican drugs baron Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

Former cattle herder Ismael Zambada - alias 'El Mayo' Zambada - has never spent a night in jail despite half a century trafficking drugs.

Authorities in the US have offered a $5m reward for his capture.

The 66-year-old dad-of-seven admitted in his only-ever newspaper interview four years ago he was terrified of being caught and vowed to kill himself rather than let himself be taken alive.

He said to respected Mexican journalist Julio Scherer after summoning him to a remote country house and asking his bodyguard to take a picture of the two for posterity: "I panic about the idea of being locked up.

"I don't know if I would have the courage to kill myself but I would like to think I would."
Painting a terrifying future in which drug cartels will never die despite high-profile captures of their leaders, he added: "Imagine one day I decide to hand myself into the government so they can shoot me.

"My case should be exemplary, a warning to others. They shoot me dead and euphoria breaks out.

"But a few days later we realise nothing has changed.

"That's because the problem of drugs trafficking involves millions. Whether the bosses are jailed, killed or extradited, their substitutes are already out there."

Zambada, Guzman's number two in the feared Cartel de Sinoloa, has always opted for a lower profile than his friend, seized in the Pacific beach resort of Mazatlan on Saturday morning.

He told Scherer during their interview in April 2010 over a breakfast of orange juice, milk, refried beans and meat: "The hills are my home, my family, my protection, my land, the water I drink."
Years ago when drugs traffickers like Zambada could move around more freely, waiters at his favourite hotel in Mazatlan are said to have fought over who served him because of the $100 tips he used to leave.

He also used to play Father Christmas by visiting his birthplace of El Alamo, a small village near Mazatlan, every Christmas with lorries laden with beer and cash for locals.

He and his wife Rosario Niebla used some of the millions they made from drugs trafficking to open a shelter for working-class and single mums called 'Nino Feliz' - 'Happy Child' in English.

Mexican government officials have accused the home, which offers users babysitting services and free meals, of being a money-laundering scam.

Zambada has been wanted by Mexican law enforcers since 1998.

Vicente Zambada, one of his three sons, was arrested by the Mexican Army in March 2009 and was extradited to the States.

Will be interesting to see where he ends up going. Here in Chicago there is all kinds of talk about him being extradited here to face charges and have his trial etc due to the fact he was Chicago's public enemy number 1 and all.

Didn't this guys son turn out to be an informant or he was claiming that he was in order to get off his charges?

He said that the sinaloa cartel worked with the dea and cia i believe. Its prolly true to.its prolly the reason the sinaloa cartel is taking so many hits lately. There pissed he talked

Rumor is he has 2 look a likes and that it was set up to get the heat off him. Probably explains why he was not with his normal entourage and you gotta think a multi billionaire ur gonna have some protection. Like I said a rumor. Look at years ago when the big cartel guy died during plastic surgery, so it is possible he pays guys to be a look a like.

I just watched The Counselor. Not quite as bad as Savages but still a waste of my life........