Who Is "El Chapo"? A Look at the Master of the Underground Tunnel

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera (Spanish pronunciation: [ xoaˈkin art ʃ iˈβaldo ɡuzˈman loˈeɾa ] born either 25 December 1954 or 4 April 1957; disputed)^[3] is the Mexican drug lord who heads the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal organization named after the Mexican Pacific coast state of Sinaloa where it was formed. Known as " El Chapo Guzmán" ("The Shorty Guzmán", pronounced: [el ˈtʃapo ɡuzˈman]) for his 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) stature, he became Mexico's top drug kingpin in 2003 after the arrest of his rival Osiel Cárdenas of the Gulf Cartel, and until his February 2014 arrest, he was considered the "most powerful drug trafficker in the world" by the United States Department of the Treasury.^[4][5] Guzmán has been ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful people in the world every year since 2009, ranking 41st, 60th and 55th respectively.^[6][7] He was named as the 10th richest man in Mexico (1,140th in the world) in 2011, with a net worth of roughly US$1 billion.^[8][9] The magazine also calls him the "biggest drug lord of all time",^[10] and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) believes he has surpassed the influence and reach of Pablo Escobar, and now considers him "the godfather of the drug world."^[11] In 2013, the Chicago Crime Commission named Guzmán "Public Enemy Number One" for the influence of his criminal network in Chicago, though there is no evidence that Guzmán has ever been in that city.^[12] The last person to receive such notoriety was Al Capone in 1930.^[13]Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel smuggles multi-ton cocaine shipments from Colombia through Mexico to the United States, the world's top consumer,^[3] and has distribution cells throughout the U.S.^[3] The organization has also been involved in the production, smuggling and distribution of Mexican methamphetamine, marijuana, MDMA^[14] and heroin across both North American and European markets.^[15][16] At the time of his 2014 arrest, Guzmán imported more drugs into the United States than anyone else.^[17] Guzmán was captured in 1993 in Guatemala, extradited and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico for murder and drug trafficking.^[3][18] After bribing prison guards, he was able to escape from a federal maximum-security prison in 2001.^[3] He was wanted by the governments of Mexico and the United States, and by INTERPOL.^[19] The U.S. offered a US$5 million reward for information leading to his capture, and the Mexican government offered a reward of 30 million pesos (approximately US$2 million) for information on Guzmán.^[3] Guzmán was arrested by Mexican authorities in Mexico on February 22, 2014. He was found inside his fourth-floor apartment at 608 Avenida del Mar in the beachfront Miramar condominium in Mazatlán, Sinaloa,^[20] and was captured without a gunshot being fired.^[17][21] Guzmán escaped from prison again on July 11, 2015.^[