Two sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán appear on the list of the 10 most wanted criminals by the Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA) worldwide. They are Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, who appears in position three and, for the first time included in the list, the US anti-drug agency is offering a 10 million pesos reward for his arrest and in the ninth position is Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, from 2018.
The list is shared with 5 more Mexicans: Carlos Omar Félix Gutiérrez, Silvano Francisco Mariano, “El Rayo,” Liborio Núñez Aguirre, “El Karateka,” Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho” and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, who appears in the eighth position and leads the Sinaloa Cartel.
It would seem that the years when the Sinaloa Cartel dominated the national territory with drug trafficking are long gone, many years have passed with its leaders at the helm, but in recent years they have been gradually falling. Even the cartel that “El Chapo” Guzmán and his partner Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García used to keep together has been divided. Currently, there is a division within the criminal group, and one of the divisions is “Los Chapitos,” journalist Antonio Nieto said that the ex-partner of El Chapo would have delivered Ovidio to launch a warning to the children of the kingpin: “Relax or we will relax them.”
The road has not been easy for Mexican and US authorities, as some members of the Guzman family have been arrested more than once, either because they have escaped or because there has been insufficient evidence to prove their guilt.
Joaquín Guzmán Loera’s first time behind bars
In June 1993, Joaquín Guzmán Loera was apprehended for the first time in Guatemala, days before he had participated in a shooting in Guadalajara where Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo died. He was deported to Mexico and sent to the maximum security prison “La Palma,” now “Altiplano,” in the State of Mexico. On November 22, 1995, he was sentenced to 20 years for crimes against health, criminal association, and bribery. He was transferred to the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, where he escaped in a laundry cart on January 19, 2001, during the six-year term of Vicente Fox.
Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar is arrested
In 2005, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar was captured in Zapopan, Jalisco, accused of money laundering. He was imprisoned in the Federal Center for Social Readaptation Number 1, known as the Altiplano prison, in the State of Mexico but was released in 2008 due to lack of evidence.
Edgar Guzmán López dies
Three years later, “El Chapo” would face a significant loss: his son Édgar Guzmán López was gunned down in a shopping mall parking lot, presumably by the Sinaloa Cartel itself, because they got confused and opened fire. The vehicle was shot at least 500 times. Edgar was accompanied by his cousin César Ariel Loera and Arturo Meza Cázares, son of Blanca Margarita Cázares, the Empress of Narco.
Blow to the Sinaloa Cartel
That same year, Jesús Zambada García, “El Rey,” brother of “El Mayo,” was imprisoned in the Lindavista neighborhood of Mexico City. In 2013, the US justice system requested him where he becomes a protected witness.
In 2009, the cartel suffered another hard blow: Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias “El Vicentillo,” son of Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo,” was arrested in Mexico City along with his five bodyguards. The arrest occurred in the Lomas del Pedregal neighborhood when subjects were traveling in recent model vehicles, carrying weapons for the exclusive use of the Army and with a suspicious attitude. He was held in the Federal Prison of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
The following year he was extradited to the United States, accused of criminal association and crimes against health. In 2019 he was sentenced in Chicago, Illinois, to 15 years in prison for conspiring to distribute drugs in the US. “El Vicentillo” has been a key player in dismantling the cartel led by his father and El Chapo, as he became a protected witness in exchange for a reduced sentence.
El Chapo” is re-incarcerated
Several years passed before the tranquility of El Cártel de Sinaloa was threatened. The cartel continued to grow in power, and little had they seen their enemies, such as those of the Arellano Félix or Beltrán Leyva Cartel, fall. However, on February 22, 2014, “El Chapo” was arrested again in a hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, with the participation of the DEA and the Secretariat of the Navy, where the drug trafficker had arrived after escaping through a sewer from a shootout with the Mexican Navy in which five “aggressors” were killed.
The criminal wanted by the DEA was admitted to the Almoloya de Juarez prison. It would be less than a year before he escaped again. On July 11, 2015, he escaped through a tunnel 1,500 meters long, informed the National Security Commissioner, Monte Alejandro Rubido. The last recording of the native of Badiraguato, Sinaloa, was recorded at 20:52 hours. He took his medication and went to the shower area outside the surveillance zone. He began his escape during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.
In 2016, on Friday, January 8, all media reported that the drug lord had been recaptured during the early morning hours after an intense confrontation in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. The Federal Police offered a reward of 60 million pesos for the criminal leader. On January 20, 2017, he was extradited to the United States after a legal battle that his lawyers waged for almost a year, “the Government of the Republic, delivered Mr. Guzmán Loera to the authorities of the United States”, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Capture of Ovidio Guzmán
Months later, precisely on October 17, 2019, another son of the Mexican drug trafficker would make headlines for the first time. Ovidio Guzmán would be captured in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and his arrest made international headlines; however, they had to let him go due to the violence that broke out in the area to demand his release.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated, “When it was decided, so as not to put the population at risk, so that civilians would not be affected, because they were going to lose their lives if we did not suspend the operation more than 200 innocent people in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and the decision was made, I ordered that this operation be stopped”.
Emma Coronel, “El Chapo’s” wife, was arrested.
Next, U.S. authorities went after Emma Coronel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera’s wife. She was arrested on February 22, 2021, at Dulles International Airport in Virginia and is accused of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin, and marijuana, importing it into U.S. territory. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, she is also charged with having helped “El Chapo” escape from a Mexican prison on July 11, 2015.
Emma Coronel Aispuro was sentenced to three years in prison on November 30, 2021, in the Maximum Security Administrative Penitentiary in Florence ADX. She is expected to be released on September 13 this year. To reduce her sentence, she had to rat out the organization from the organizational point of view.
After her release from the minimum security prison FMC Carswell located in North Texas, “Chapo’s” wife must comply with a series of rules to remain free. Among them, she is strictly forbidden to communicate with people involved in criminal activities. The rest of the rules to comply with are:
- She must report to the authorities and the officer assigned to her.
- She will have to look for a job that will keep her busy at least 30 hours a week.
- In case she wants to change jobs, she must notify her officer.
Ovidio Guzmán is recaptured
When it was believed that everything was calm for the cartel, another black Thursday marked the criminal cell of “Los Chapitos.” It was announced the recapture of Ovidio Guzmán in Jesús María, Sinaloa. Luis Cresencio Sandoval González confirmed the news: “In the early morning hours of January 5 of this year, personnel from the Mexican Army and National Guard, in coordination with the National Intelligence Center, the CENFI, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Sinaloa Public Security Secretariat arrested Ovidio “N,” the alleged leader of the “Los Menores” faction linked to the Pacific Cartel.
Ovidio, one of the leaders of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, was sent to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation (Cefereso) number 1, known as “El Altiplano,” located in the municipality of Almoloya de Juarez, in the state of Mexico.
The government headed by Joe Biden is currently processing Ovidio’s extradition, and Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that he believes it is feasible to expedite it due to the charges brought against him and 27 other members of the same criminal organization by the U.S. Department of Justice.
How do Los Chapitos operate?
The drug trafficking group is operated under the orders of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, alias “El Chapito,” one of Guzmán Loera’s eldest sons and Ovidio’s older half-brother, according to the BBC.
Jesus Alfredo “El Alfredillo” also reportedly commands the criminal group. Both are sons that “El Chapo” had with Alejandrina Salazar Hernandez, who, although they learned from their father’s business, lack their father’s cunning, according to security analyst Alejandro Hope.
“The sons have a moral weight, a symbolic power, but the one in charge is ‘El Mayo,'” journalist Luis Carlos Saenz told the BBC. At the same time, Ovidio Guzman and his brother Joaquin Guzman Lopez, sons of Griselda Lopez Perez, are also part of “Los Menores.”
Ovidio was being followed more closely by US authorities as he was accused of importing drugs into that country since April 2018, just during the period when his father was waiting to go to trial and was imprisoned in the city of Manhattan. Ovidio was backed by his brother Joaquin in narcotics distribution, but unlike his brother, he is still a fugitive from justice.
The fight between “Los Menores” and Ismael Zambada’s faction is not only for control in Sinaloa but also extends to several areas in Sonora and Baja California. Despite the internal feud, the Sinaloa Cartel continues with drug trafficking, mainly to the United States.
The US will not rest until the Sinaloa Cartel is exterminated.
The US authorities’ hunt against “El Chapo’s” sons will not stop. Since the beginning of April, the Washington Justice Department announced that it is going all out against “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons for fentanyl. It also revealed that criminal charges had been filed against 28 members of the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. authorities held a press conference and explained that the idea was to disrupt the flow of illegal fentanyl and other dangerous drugs sold by this criminal cell.
“Families and communities across our country are devastated by the fentanyl epidemic. Today’s actions demonstrate the comprehensive approach the Department of Justice is taking to disrupt fentanyl trafficking and save American lives.” he punctuated in the released statement.