El Chapo, Chopped! Good catch!

[Sallow]

Drug lord caught..

The legend of 'El Chapo': Cartel chief cultivated Robin Hood image

CNN) -- Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman eluded arrest for so long that the stories about him veered closer and closer to the stuff of legend.

So powerful is he, people said, that he can bribe anyone. He commands so much loyalty, the story goes, that he is always tipped off when the heat is close. He's so fearless that he can live his life without concern of being caught.

Of course, now we know his influence has its limits.

Guzman was arrested overnight in a hotel in the Pacific beach town of Mazatlan, in his home state of Sinaloa.

He had been on the lam since escaping from prison in 2001, and no one -- that we know of -- came close to catching the drug lord who regularly appears on Forbes magazine list of most powerful people.

The rumor was that with that kind of money, he could be hiding anywhere in the world.

In the end, he was caught just 140 miles from the city of Culiacan, the home base for his Sinaloa drug cartel.

Mexican Marines (touted by Mexico as the least susceptible to corruption) and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (who have a hand in nearly all major busts) carried out the joint operation.

 

[TheOldSchool]

They all go down in the end

 

[PredFan]

If they can get Tony Montana, they can get anyone.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Damn Mexican cartels, and damn Americans who through their irresponsible illegal drug use keep these pieces of shit going.

 

[Katzndogz]

The cartels are already moving over to kidnappings so they will be okay in the US.

 

[longknife]

An aside, he is a hero to some very poor Mexicans in small villages where he's had money put into building roads and public buildings.

 

[Sallow]

An aside, he is a hero to some very poor Mexicans in small villages where he's had money put into building roads and public buildings.

So was Gotti in lower middle class neighborhoods.

I'm glad he's dead.

 

[waltky]

El Chapo's reach into the legislature...

Questioning of lawmaker linked to 'El Chapo' Guzman criticized in Mexico
January 22, 2016 - The transfer of a female state lawmaker to Mexico's capital for questioning about her links to imprisoned Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman has sparked criticism due to the way in which she was brought in and the fact that she enjoys legislative immunity from prosecution as an elected official.

Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez, a member of the legislature of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, where the notorious drug lord was born, was taken Wednesday night by Federal Police to Mexico City, where she was questioned for roughly 20 hours at the offices of the Seido organized-crime division of the federal Attorney General's Office. Ruben Tamayo, Sanchez's attorney, told reporters afterward that his client was released at around 7:00 p.m. Thursday after being informed that she was the subject of a federal investigation, adding that she would later submit a sworn, written statement. The defense attorney said he was present throughout the questioning and that prosecutors treated his client in a respectful manner. The federal AG's office said Wednesday night that Sanchez's transfer from Sinaloa to Mexico City stemmed from a subpoena issued as part of a probe into allegations that she entered the Altiplano I maximum-security prison to visit Guzman using fake ID.

Respected newsweekly Proceso reported last year that Sanchez used a false identity to visit the capo at that penitentiary, located outside Mexico's capital. Proceso also said that as a result of Sanchez's relationship with Guzman he fathered her two sons Ruben and Anuel. Guzman was first housed at Altiplano I in February 2014, but he escaped last July through a tunnel dug to his cell. The drug lord then was returned to the same prison on Jan. 8 after being recaptured earlier this month in Sinaloa state. He had earlier busted out of a Mexican prison in 2001 and evaded authorities for more than 13 years before being recaptured on Feb. 22, 2014, in the Pacific resort city of Mazatlan.

Sanchez, who on Wednesday announced that she would no longer be a part of the conservative opposition National Action Party's, or PAN's, faction in the state legislature, accused the federal government of orchestrating a "televised show" by linking her with the drug lord. The PAN, for its part, said last week that Sanchez no longer belonged to the party, noting that in 2013 she had run as a candidate of a multiparty alliance that included the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, and the PAN, among others.

MORE

 

[Stephanie]

So why are we getting all tingly exactly? you're out of everything to celebrate or what?

 

[waltky]

El Chapo underboss arrested...

'El Chapo's' alleged Sonora state drug cartel boss arrested
March 28, 2016 -- Mexican police have arrested an alleged cartel boss accused of working for drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel.

Raul Beltran Quintero -- the alleged cartel boss of Mexico's Sonora state -- was arrested in the city of Caborca on Saturday, the Sonora Public Safety Secretariat said in a statement on Sunday. Eight other suspected Sinaloa Cartel members were also arrested, including a minor. In the operation, officials seized eight weapons, ammunition and two vehicles -- a 2012 Toyota FJ Cruiser and a 2007 Cadillac Escalade, which were reported stolen in the United States.

Quintero, 50, is the brother of Manuel Beltran Quintero, who was arrested in 2014 on drug charges. Guzman's Sinaloa Cartel is credited with dominating the illegal drug market in nearly the entire United States, according to a report by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The report states the criminal organization is most powerful "along the West Coast, through the Midwest and into the Northeast."

Guzman was captured in the city of Los Mochis in his home state of Sinaloa on Jan. 8 after escaping from Mexico's Altiplano Federal Prison on July 11. Police also recently arrested Juan Manuel Alvarez Inzunza, 34, who is alleged to have laundered about $4 billion in the last ten years for the Sinaloa Cartel. He was arrested while vacationing in the southern state of Oaxaca.

'El Chapo's' alleged Sonora state drug cartel boss arrested

See also:

El Chapo's money man arrested in Oaxaca
March 28, 2016 -- A man reported to be one of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán top money launderers has been arrested, Mexican Federal Police said Sunday.

Juan Manuel Alvarez Inzunza, 34, alleged to have laundered about $4 billion in the last ten years, was arrested while vacationing in the southern state of Oaxaca, police tweeted. Police said IInzunza, nicknamed "El Rey Midas" or "King Midas", laundered about $300 million to $400 million dollars a year from the Guzman's Sinaloa cartel through a network of companies and currency exchange centers in Mexico, the United States, Columbia and Panama, MSN reported.

IInzunza was arrested on a provisional extradition warrant from the U.S., where he is wanted for money laundering. Guzmán was one of the heads of the Sinaloa Cartel, considered Mexico's most profitable drug gang. His escape from a maximum-security prison in Mexico drew world-wide attention in 2015. He was recaptured after a shootout on Jan. 8.

El Chapo's money man arrested in Oaxaca

 

[waltky]

Granny says dey shoulda kept him when dey had him...

Freed Mexican Drug Lord Still in Business, US Says
May 11, 2016 — The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday said veteran drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero has continued to traffic illegal drugs since being released from a Mexican prison, and it named his common-law wife as a key accomplice.

Caro Quintero, convicted of ordering the torture and killing of a U.S. anti-drug agent in Mexico in 1985, was freed from prison in August 2013 in a move that angered the U.S. government. He then went underground. On Wednesday, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) added his partner, Diana Espinoza Salazar, to its list of drug traffickers, saying she was an integral part of Caro Quintero's operations, according to a statement.

Espinoza Salazar met Caro Quintero in prison, and she holds some of his assets under her name, the statement said. OFAC ordered her U.S. assets to be frozen. The Treasury, "in coordination with DEA [the Drug Enforcement Administration], is committed to targeting Caro Quintero until he is brought to justice and his organization is dismantled," said Acting OFAC Director John E. Smith.

Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero is shown behind bars​

Caro Quintero, believed to be 63, is one of the old guard of the countries' drug lords. He was one of the leaders of the Guadalajara cartel, a forerunner of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa cartel. Guzman was moved to a prison near the U.S. border last weekend, and on Monday a court said he could be extradited to face charges in the United States.

Caro Quintero had served 28 years of a 40-year sentence for the brutal death of DEA agent Enrique Camarena and was released after a Mexican court ruled he should have been tried at a state level rather than on federal charges. The United States is offering a $5 million dollar reward for information leading to Caro Quintero's recapture. Following his release in 2013, the United States asked Mexico to detain him so that he could be extradited to the United States.

Freed Mexican Drug Lord Still in Business, US Says

See also:

50 indicted for allegedly running drug, murder-for-hire gang in Puerto Rico prisons
May 12, 2016 -- The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted 50 alleged members of Puerto Rico's La Asociación ÑETA gang with charges including racketeering, drug trafficking and murder.

The La Asociación ÑETA gang operates within Puerto Rico prisons, according to the Justice Department. The group was originally created by inmates to advocate for rights within the Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, but the organization became involved in criminal activities. Those charged include high-ranking members of the gang. "The main purpose of the organization is to make money," the Justice Department said in a statement. "The enterprise makes money by introducing multi-kilogram quantities of drugs into the PRDCR prisons for profit and by engaging in murders for hire."

The Justice Department's indictment alleges that La Asociación ÑETA members were able to create a marketplace for cocaine, marijuana and heroin within Puerto Rico prisons with the help of corrupt correctional officers, civilians who worked within prisons, people who visited inmates or people who would throw drugs into prisons from outside prison walls. The indictment also alleges La Asociación ÑETA members were hired by people not imprisoned to kill fellow inmates. The gang members also allegedly smuggled cellphones into the prison and charged other inmates to use the cellphones. All defendants face up to life in prison.

"Even prison walls were not enough to stop the brazen acts of this violent gang," special agent in charge Douglas A. Leff of the FBI's San Juan Division said in a statement. "In reality, their conduct is more accurately described as that of an international mafia than a prison gang. Their network reached throughout Puerto Rico and the continental United States. This enabled them to order hits on rival gang members, corrupt two sworn officers and to move large quantities of drugs and other contraband, effectively turning their prison into a gang-controlled housing project."

50 indicted for allegedly running drug, murder-for-hire gang in Puerto Rico prisons

 

[waltky]

El Chapo gonna contest extradition ruling...

Mexican drug boss El Chapo to challenge extradition ruling
Sunday 22nd May, 2016 - Mexico approved the extradition of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States on Friday after receiving guarantees he would not face the death penalty, and the kinkgpin’s lawyers vowed to block the move.

Juan Pablo Badillo, one of Guzman’s lawyers, told Reuters he would file “many” legal challenges in the coming days, which could delay the drug lord’s eventual extradition for weeks. Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was the world’s most wanted drug kingpin until his capture in January, six months after he broke out of a high-security penitentiary in central Mexico through a mile-long tunnel burrowed right up into his cell. Mexico’s foreign ministry said he would face charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and murder in U.S. federal courts in California and Texas. The ministry said it was given “sufficient guarantees” by the U.S. government that Guzman would not be executed. It was not immediately clear where Guzman would be sent in the United States.

A U.S. Justice Department official confirmed that the United States had agreed not to seek the death penalty, but declined to discuss any further details about the case or what the department will do pending a Guzman appeal. Asked whether he would file legal challenges on behalf of Guzman, Badillo said: “Of course. Five, 10, whatever is necessary.” Guzman’s escape last year was a major embarrassment to President Enrique Pena Nieto, who entered office amid a bloody war between the government and drug cartels launched by his predecessor. Pena Nieto dialed back cooperation with the United States after taking office in 2013, but soon after Guzman’s recapture in January he said he had taken steps to ensure the kingpin would be extradited as soon as possible. Mike Vigil, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief of international operations, said he did not think the United States needed to do much to convince Mexico to extradite Guzman, since the longer he stayed in the country, the more opportunities the drug lord would have to stage another potentially embarrassing jailbreak.

Vigil said Mexican officials told him that it is currently costing the government $100,000 per week to keep the kingpin in prison. “Mexico knows they have no penitentiary that can hold him given their limited resources and his power to intimidate,” said Vigil, who now works as an independent consultant. “I believe he will definitely die in a U.S. prison cell.” Earlier this month, Guzman was moved from a jail in central Mexico to a prison in Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border, seen as a step closer to extradition. Mexican authorities say they tracked Guzman down after he sought to make a movie about his life and met with Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, who published an interview with the drug boss in Rolling Stone. In a plot worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, the trio met at a jungle hideout, unwittingly monitored by Mexican security forces. Guzman was finally apprehended around 3 months later as he sought to flee through drains from a safehouse in his native state of Sinaloa along with his chief hitman.

Guzman, whose nickname means “Shorty,” first escaped prison in 2001 by bribing prison officials, and went on to dominate the world of Mexican drug trafficking. He was recaptured by Pena Nieto’s government in 2014 but escaped in July by capitalizing on the drug-tunneling skills his cartel honed on the U.S. border. A mile-long tunnel equipped with electric lights, rails and a motorbike came out directly into the shower of his prison cell and he simply slipped away. Dozens of people were arrested over the jailbreak, though details of who Guzman bribed and how his accomplices knew exactly where to dig into the prison remain scarce. With Chapo back behind bars, his more discreet partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who jointly heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel, is the last major Mexican capo standing.

Mexican drug boss El Chapo to challenge extradition ruling