27 °c
Accra
27 ° Wed
26 ° Thu
25 ° Fri
26 ° Sat
26 ° Sun
TV
Market
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Nsemgh
  • News
    • All
    • Breaking News
    • Local News
    • World News
    Bryan Acheampong Bans Consumption Of Animals Found Dead In Binduri, U/E

    Bryan Acheampong Bans Consumption Of Animals Found Dead In Binduri, U/E

    NLC Summons GBC Staff, FWSC Over Blocked Allowances Impasse

    NLC Summons GBC Staff, FWSC Over Blocked Allowances Impasse

    Nogokpo Traditional Leaders Refuse To Rescind Decision To Summon Agyinasare

    Nogokpo Traditional Leaders Refuse To Rescind Decision To Summon Agyinasare

    NSMQ 2023: St Mary’s Boys SHS Beat Shama SHS To Secure National Championship Spot

    NSMQ 2023: St Mary’s Boys SHS Beat Shama SHS To Secure National Championship Spot

    • Local News
    • World News
    • Breaking News
  • BUSINESS
    Ghana Serves As A Launchpad For Saudi Businesses To Access Wider Market – Saudi Arabia Ambassador To Ghana

    Ghana Serves As A Launchpad For Saudi Businesses To Access Wider Market – Saudi Arabia Ambassador To Ghana

    We Are Confident Of Meeting IMF Conditions For Fiscal Consolidation – Ofori – Atta

    We Are Confident Of Meeting IMF Conditions For Fiscal Consolidation – Ofori – Atta

    Biden hails debt ceiling deal as he and McCarthy prepare to sell it to Congress

    Biden hails debt ceiling deal as he and McCarthy prepare to sell it to Congress

    Non-VAT Registered Importers To Pay 12.5% Upfront

    Non-VAT Registered Importers To Pay 12.5% Upfront

    We’ll Not Listen To Anymore Promises Should We Resume Picketing – Pensioner Bondholders

    We’ll Not Listen To Anymore Promises Should We Resume Picketing – Pensioner Bondholders

  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • All
    • Religion
    If Black Sherif marries too early, his marriage will collapse – Nana Romeo

    If Black Sherif marries too early, his marriage will collapse – Nana Romeo

    There are no record labels in Ghana – Empress Gifty 

    There are no record labels in Ghana – Empress Gifty 

    Lasmid is no more under Highly Spiritual Music – Kaywa attests

    Lasmid is no more under Highly Spiritual Music – Kaywa attests

    Akuapem Poloo

    Forgive me if I’ve misled you – Akuapem Poloo apologizes to fans

    Kanye West sports shoulder-padded top and sock-leggings to play with son Psalm, 4.

    Kanye West sports shoulder-padded top and sock-leggings to play with son Psalm, 4.

    GHAMRO to sue Akosua Adjepong for spreading ‘rumors’

    GHAMRO to sue Akosua Adjepong for spreading ‘rumors’

    • Religion
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All
    • Architecture
    • Automobile

    AI-controlled US military drone ‘kills’ its operator in simulated test

    China’s manufactured plane completes maiden commercial flight

    China’s manufactured plane completes maiden commercial flight

    Elon Musk Names Linda Yaccarino New Twitter CEO

    Elon Musk Names Linda Yaccarino New Twitter CEO

    Elon Musk announces he has found new Twitter CEO

    Elon Musk announces he has found new Twitter CEO

    Israeli Anti-drone Radars Deployed in Ukraine to enhance its defense system

    Israeli Anti-drone Radars Deployed in Ukraine to enhance its defense system

    Declaration Of MTN As Significant Market Power: Smaller Telcos Save GH¢86.6m

    Declaration Of MTN As Significant Market Power: Smaller Telcos Save GH¢86.6m

    • Architecture
    • Automobile
  • Features
    • All
    • Announcement
    • Obituary
    • Opinion
    How El Chapo’s sons ruined America by creating a fentanyl empire

    How El Chapo’s sons ruined America by creating a fentanyl empire

    How many foreign workers have passed away in Qatar?

    How many foreign workers have passed away in Qatar?

    DEA’s most corrupt agent:   Parties , sex amid “unwinnable war”

    DEA’s most corrupt agent: Parties , sex amid “unwinnable war”

    Why Ghana doesn’t really have a Fertilizer  crisis

    Why Ghana doesn’t really have a Fertilizer crisis

    US rapper Coolio, known for the iconic hit Gangsta’s Paradise,died at the age of 59

    From Gangsta’s Paradise to reality TV, Coolio was a stone-faced rapper who softened hearts

    VIDEO: UK Queen Happy and Glories Platinum Jubilee

    Queen Elizabeth’s death leads to renewed African calls for apologies

    • Opinion
    • Announcement
    • Obituary
  • Health
    Midwife Delivers Baby In Speeding Commercial Vehicle

    Midwife Delivers Baby In Speeding Commercial Vehicle

    Sanitary Pads Should Be Tax-free; Not Menstrual Luxury – Rosetta Ntriwaah Boakye

    Sanitary Pads Should Be Tax-free; Not Menstrual Luxury – Rosetta Ntriwaah Boakye

    Zambia begins door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination

    High blood Pressure and COVID has made many Black people in America plugged into catastrophe

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    ‘I Was Naive’ – Hospital Owner Regrets Giving Quack Midwife Freedom To Operate

    ‘I Was Naive’ – Hospital Owner Regrets Giving Quack Midwife Freedom To Operate

  • LIFE STYLE
    • All
    • Fashion
    You are not a ‘real’ man if women don’t fight over you – Ajagurajah

    You are not a ‘real’ man if women don’t fight over you – Ajagurajah

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    You Are Not Normal – Odartey Lartey Lovingly Tells Wife – VIDEO

    You Are Not Normal – Odartey Lartey Lovingly Tells Wife – VIDEO

    Woman Asks For Refund From Wedding Photographer After Divorce, Says ‘Don’t Need Those Pictures Anymore’

    Woman Asks For Refund From Wedding Photographer After Divorce, Says ‘Don’t Need Those Pictures Anymore’

    It’s Logically Right To Have Sex Before Marriage – Relationship Expert

    It’s Logically Right To Have Sex Before Marriage – Relationship Expert

    Don’t Abandon Duty Post For All-night Prayers, Funerals – DCOP Boadu-Ekumah

    Don’t Abandon Duty Post For All-night Prayers, Funerals – DCOP Boadu-Ekumah

    • Fashion
  • Sports
    • All
    • Local Sport
    • World Sport
    Juventus Tracking Kamaldeen Sulemana

    Juventus Tracking Kamaldeen Sulemana

    CK Akonnor’s Son Wins European Championship With Germany

    CK Akonnor’s Son Wins European Championship With Germany

    BetPawa PL Wk 33: Hearts Record 4th Consecutive Loss, Medeama SC Drop Points

    BetPawa PL Wk 33: Hearts Record 4th Consecutive Loss, Medeama SC Drop Points

    Simba SC Part Ways With Augustine Okrah

    Simba SC Part Ways With Augustine Okrah

    King Faisal Relegated From Ghana Premier League

    King Faisal Relegated From Ghana Premier League

    Black Stars Start Camping On Monday

    Black Stars Start Camping On Monday

    • Local Sports
    • World Sport
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Breaking News
    • Local News
    • World News
    Bryan Acheampong Bans Consumption Of Animals Found Dead In Binduri, U/E

    Bryan Acheampong Bans Consumption Of Animals Found Dead In Binduri, U/E

    NLC Summons GBC Staff, FWSC Over Blocked Allowances Impasse

    NLC Summons GBC Staff, FWSC Over Blocked Allowances Impasse

    Nogokpo Traditional Leaders Refuse To Rescind Decision To Summon Agyinasare

    Nogokpo Traditional Leaders Refuse To Rescind Decision To Summon Agyinasare

    NSMQ 2023: St Mary’s Boys SHS Beat Shama SHS To Secure National Championship Spot

    NSMQ 2023: St Mary’s Boys SHS Beat Shama SHS To Secure National Championship Spot

    • Local News
    • World News
    • Breaking News
  • BUSINESS
    Ghana Serves As A Launchpad For Saudi Businesses To Access Wider Market – Saudi Arabia Ambassador To Ghana

    Ghana Serves As A Launchpad For Saudi Businesses To Access Wider Market – Saudi Arabia Ambassador To Ghana

    We Are Confident Of Meeting IMF Conditions For Fiscal Consolidation – Ofori – Atta

    We Are Confident Of Meeting IMF Conditions For Fiscal Consolidation – Ofori – Atta

    Biden hails debt ceiling deal as he and McCarthy prepare to sell it to Congress

    Biden hails debt ceiling deal as he and McCarthy prepare to sell it to Congress

    Non-VAT Registered Importers To Pay 12.5% Upfront

    Non-VAT Registered Importers To Pay 12.5% Upfront

    We’ll Not Listen To Anymore Promises Should We Resume Picketing – Pensioner Bondholders

    We’ll Not Listen To Anymore Promises Should We Resume Picketing – Pensioner Bondholders

  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • All
    • Religion
    If Black Sherif marries too early, his marriage will collapse – Nana Romeo

    If Black Sherif marries too early, his marriage will collapse – Nana Romeo

    There are no record labels in Ghana – Empress Gifty 

    There are no record labels in Ghana – Empress Gifty 

    Lasmid is no more under Highly Spiritual Music – Kaywa attests

    Lasmid is no more under Highly Spiritual Music – Kaywa attests

    Akuapem Poloo

    Forgive me if I’ve misled you – Akuapem Poloo apologizes to fans

    Kanye West sports shoulder-padded top and sock-leggings to play with son Psalm, 4.

    Kanye West sports shoulder-padded top and sock-leggings to play with son Psalm, 4.

    GHAMRO to sue Akosua Adjepong for spreading ‘rumors’

    GHAMRO to sue Akosua Adjepong for spreading ‘rumors’

    • Religion
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All
    • Architecture
    • Automobile

    AI-controlled US military drone ‘kills’ its operator in simulated test

    China’s manufactured plane completes maiden commercial flight

    China’s manufactured plane completes maiden commercial flight

    Elon Musk Names Linda Yaccarino New Twitter CEO

    Elon Musk Names Linda Yaccarino New Twitter CEO

    Elon Musk announces he has found new Twitter CEO

    Elon Musk announces he has found new Twitter CEO

    Israeli Anti-drone Radars Deployed in Ukraine to enhance its defense system

    Israeli Anti-drone Radars Deployed in Ukraine to enhance its defense system

    Declaration Of MTN As Significant Market Power: Smaller Telcos Save GH¢86.6m

    Declaration Of MTN As Significant Market Power: Smaller Telcos Save GH¢86.6m

    • Architecture
    • Automobile
  • Features
    • All
    • Announcement
    • Obituary
    • Opinion
    How El Chapo’s sons ruined America by creating a fentanyl empire

    How El Chapo’s sons ruined America by creating a fentanyl empire

    How many foreign workers have passed away in Qatar?

    How many foreign workers have passed away in Qatar?

    DEA’s most corrupt agent:   Parties , sex amid “unwinnable war”

    DEA’s most corrupt agent: Parties , sex amid “unwinnable war”

    Why Ghana doesn’t really have a Fertilizer  crisis

    Why Ghana doesn’t really have a Fertilizer crisis

    US rapper Coolio, known for the iconic hit Gangsta’s Paradise,died at the age of 59

    From Gangsta’s Paradise to reality TV, Coolio was a stone-faced rapper who softened hearts

    VIDEO: UK Queen Happy and Glories Platinum Jubilee

    Queen Elizabeth’s death leads to renewed African calls for apologies

    • Opinion
    • Announcement
    • Obituary
  • Health
    Midwife Delivers Baby In Speeding Commercial Vehicle

    Midwife Delivers Baby In Speeding Commercial Vehicle

    Sanitary Pads Should Be Tax-free; Not Menstrual Luxury – Rosetta Ntriwaah Boakye

    Sanitary Pads Should Be Tax-free; Not Menstrual Luxury – Rosetta Ntriwaah Boakye

    Zambia begins door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination

    High blood Pressure and COVID has made many Black people in America plugged into catastrophe

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    ‘I Was Naive’ – Hospital Owner Regrets Giving Quack Midwife Freedom To Operate

    ‘I Was Naive’ – Hospital Owner Regrets Giving Quack Midwife Freedom To Operate

  • LIFE STYLE
    • All
    • Fashion
    You are not a ‘real’ man if women don’t fight over you – Ajagurajah

    You are not a ‘real’ man if women don’t fight over you – Ajagurajah

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    Pregnancy Hypertensive Disorder Shatters Hopes

    You Are Not Normal – Odartey Lartey Lovingly Tells Wife – VIDEO

    You Are Not Normal – Odartey Lartey Lovingly Tells Wife – VIDEO

    Woman Asks For Refund From Wedding Photographer After Divorce, Says ‘Don’t Need Those Pictures Anymore’

    Woman Asks For Refund From Wedding Photographer After Divorce, Says ‘Don’t Need Those Pictures Anymore’

    It’s Logically Right To Have Sex Before Marriage – Relationship Expert

    It’s Logically Right To Have Sex Before Marriage – Relationship Expert

    Don’t Abandon Duty Post For All-night Prayers, Funerals – DCOP Boadu-Ekumah

    Don’t Abandon Duty Post For All-night Prayers, Funerals – DCOP Boadu-Ekumah

    • Fashion
  • Sports
    • All
    • Local Sport
    • World Sport
    Juventus Tracking Kamaldeen Sulemana

    Juventus Tracking Kamaldeen Sulemana

    CK Akonnor’s Son Wins European Championship With Germany

    CK Akonnor’s Son Wins European Championship With Germany

    BetPawa PL Wk 33: Hearts Record 4th Consecutive Loss, Medeama SC Drop Points

    BetPawa PL Wk 33: Hearts Record 4th Consecutive Loss, Medeama SC Drop Points

    Simba SC Part Ways With Augustine Okrah

    Simba SC Part Ways With Augustine Okrah

    King Faisal Relegated From Ghana Premier League

    King Faisal Relegated From Ghana Premier League

    Black Stars Start Camping On Monday

    Black Stars Start Camping On Monday

    • Local Sports
    • World Sport
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Nsemgh
Home Features
How El Chapo’s sons ruined America by creating a fentanyl empire

How El Chapo’s sons ruined America by creating a fentanyl empire

4 weeks ago
in Features, World News
Reading Time: 18 mins read
A A
0
Share on Telegram

In January 2017, days after Mexico extradited the notorious drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to the United States, local cops in his home state of Sinaloa fell under attack.

Some were shot dead in broad daylight. Others vanished and were never found. In all, 13 police officers died or disappeared in the months that followed.

That spree was the start of a shift in tactics within Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel, according to four intelligence and security officials, one that signaled the arrival of a new force inside one of Mexico’s most powerful drug syndicates: the kingpin’s four sons.

Collectively known as Los Chapitos, or “the little Chapos,” the four siblings were once mocked by adversaries as entitled princelings more concerned with flashing their wealth on Instagram than the grubby work of moving tons of cocaine into the United States. Yet the brothers have resuscitated a drug empire teetering after their father was locked behind U.S. bars and diversified the business by embracing a new line of synthetic drugs.

Their early bet on fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin, helped supercharge an opioid epidemic that has placed them squarely in the crosshairs of American anti-narcotics agents.

Last month, U.S. authorities laid out extensive new charges against the brothers in indictments filed in multiple jurisdictions, and upped bounties for two of the siblings to $10 million apiece, cementing their status as some of the world’s most powerful and wanted drug lords. U.S. officials portrayed them as the face of a highly addictive poison that’s killing nearly 200 Americans daily.

RelatedStories

The fighter jets caused a sonic boom over the US capital that sent some residents into a brief panic

At least 131 dead, hundreds injured after trains derail in India

Kyiv shoots down more than 30 missiles and drones

AI-controlled US military drone ‘kills’ its operator in simulated test

Tina Turner’s Husband Who Donated His Kidney To Her Expected To Receive Half Of $250million Fortune

Nearly 1.4 Million People Displaced In Sudan Since Civil War Erupted, UN Report Says

The U.S. government has advertised hefty rewards for information leading to the arrest of “Los Chapitos,” accused drug traffickers and sons of famed Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. One of the siblings is currently in custody in Mexico. The others remain at large. U.S. State Department/Handout via Reuters

“The Chapitos pioneered the manufacture and trafficking of the deadliest drug our country has ever faced,” Anne Milgram, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief, said at an April 14 press conference in Washington. “They inherited a global drug empire and made it more ruthless, more violent and more deadly.”

Los Chapitos, for the first time ever, released a public letter last week denying claims that they traffic fentanyl and rebutting allegations made by U.S. officials in the Washington press conference.

“We have never produced, manufactured or marketed fentanyl or any of its derivatives. We are victims of persecution and they made us a scapegoat,” the brothers said in the letter. Mexico’s Milenio news channel aired its contents on May 3, along with an interview of Guzmán family lawyer José Refugio Rodríguez, who provided the broadcaster with the document.

Denying that they head the Sinaloa Cartel, the brothers said drug traffickers and the media have exploited their father’s fame to implicate them in crimes of which they are innocent.

El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a “Supermax” prison in Colorado. Mariel Colón Miro, Guzmán’s U.S.-based attorney, said her client was unable to comment due to restrictions barring him from speaking to the media.

The four brothers, two born to El Chapo’s first wife, the others to another, range in age from 33 to 40, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Headed by Iván, El Chapo’s oldest son, the siblings have emerged as key figures in the Sinaloa Cartel, U.S. and Mexican anti-narcotics officials said. While the syndicate is a loose confederation of trafficking factions that cooperate on logistics and security, the Guzmáns’ bloc is a pillar of the organization, the officials said, and Los Chapitos have quickly consolidated power within it.

To chronicle the rise of this new generation of “Narco Juniors,” as children of established traffickers are known in Mexico, Reuters spoke with four Sinaloa Cartel operatives and visited a house where gang members assembled pills stuffed with methamphetamine, another cash cow. The news agency also interviewed dozens of sources, including law enforcement, intelligence and government officials in Mexico and the United States, as well as local residents who’ve witnessed the changing of the guard.

The rapid ascendancy of Los Chapitos, many details of which are told here for the first time, shows how authorities may have underestimated the former party boys.

“This new generation is more violent. Before, they would interrogate and then kill you. Now they kill and ask questions later.”Retired Sinaloan police officer on the contrast between drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and his sons

A 2019 showdown with Mexico’s Army in Culiacán, Sinaloa’s capital, already has cemented their place in narco lore. Soldiers captured Ovidio, the youngest of the four siblings, then quickly released him on the orders of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador after cartel foot soldiers fought troops in shootouts that killed 14 people, including several bystanders.

“This new generation is more violent,” said one retired Mexican police officer in Sinaloa. “Before, they would interrogate and then kill you. Now they kill and ask questions later.”

Within the cartel, the brothers have battled elders opposed to them assuming their father’s mantle, including El Chapo’s former right-hand man Dámaso López, according to U.S. and Mexican security sources.

But these young guns have also built a reputation as sharp businessmen. They’ve helped transform Mexico from a transit country for Chinese-produced fentanyl into a major production hub, half a dozen U.S. officials and DEA sources said. To do that, they said, Los Chapitos built a network of clandestine laboratories across Sinaloa and ramped up smuggling of precursor chemicals from China.

The earnings have been astronomical. The cartel can turn $800 worth of precursor chemicals into fentanyl pills or powder that reap profits as high as $640,000, according to one of the April indictments, which was filed in the Southern District of New York. That cash, U.S. prosecutors say, has bankrolled a war chest used by the brothers to bribe politicians and cops, and finance an ever-growing army of sicarios, or hit men, to protect their interests.

The impact on U.S. streets has been devastating. One American dies from a fentanyl overdose almost every eight minutes, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said at the Washington press conference. U.S. overdose deaths, the lion’s share due to fentanyl, surged to nearly 107,000 in 2021.

More than 41 kilograms of fentanyl powder and 630,000 fentanyl pills were seized from a Phoenix, Arizona, stash house by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency on Aug. 19, 2022. Some of the drugs bore stamps of  “Chapiza” and “Ratón,” nicknames for Los Chapitos and Ovidio Guzmán, respectively. U.S. Department of Justice/Handout via REUTERS

Los Chapitos’ ascent, U.S. and Mexican officials say, has coincided with a decision by López Obrador to turn away from the aggressive anti-narcotics policies of his predecessors.

After assuming office in December 2018, López Obrador restructured Mexico’s security forces, eliminating teams that were once at the forefront of probing cartel activity, U.S. and Mexico security sources said. They say the president also curbed security cooperation with the United States and largely eschewed the so-called kingpin strategy that led previous administrations to arrest El Chapo and other high-profile traffickers.

Instead, the president has vowed to concentrate on social programs to tackle crime and violence at a grassroots level, a policy dubbed “abrazos, no balazos” or “hugs, not bullets.”

Mexico’s presidency did not respond to a request for comment about López Obrador’s crime fighting approach. He has repeatedly touted his strategy on multiple visits to Sinaloa. “Nothing can be solved with the use of force. You can’t put out fire with fire,” Lopez Obrador told residents in 2019. His supporters note that murders nationwide have stabilized since he took power.

The president’s critics say the number of homicides – above 30,000 a year – is still extremely high, and the production and smuggling of drugs into the United States have increased.

Mexico’s Army did ultimately apprehend Ovidio Guzmán earlier this year by sending hundreds of troops to raid one of his homes in rural Sinaloa. He’s now in a maximum-security lockup near Mexico City. But that arrest had more to do with the Army trying to restore its battered prestige rather than a shift in López Obrador’s thinking, four U.S. and Mexican officials said.

Ovidio’s lawyer and López Obrador’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The Army did not comment about its motive for the arrest.

U.S.-Mexico security ties have frayed. López Obrador called the recent U.S. indictments against the four younger Guzmáns an “abusive, arrogant interference that should not be accepted under any circumstances.” The Mexican leader said the case was built by DEA agents operating in Mexico, which he has deemed a violation of sovereignty.

While he has not booted the agency from the country, DEA operations have been hobbled on his watch. Mexico in 2021 disbanded an elite police unit that worked closely with the DEA for a quarter of a century; amended a national security law to make it harder for foreign agents to operate inside Mexico; and slow-walked visa approvals for DEA agents, CNN reported.

Those measures were widely viewed as retaliation for the 2020 arrest of former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos in Los Angeles on drug trafficking charges, a move that angered López Obrador. U.S. prosecutors later dropped the charges, pointing to sensitive foreign policy considerations.

The Justice Department declined to comment. The DEA did not respond to a request for comment.  Rafael Heredia Rubio, a lawyer representing Cienfuegos, said he was not authorized to comment. Cienfuegos’ attorneys previously had denied that he was involved in drug trafficking.

The Sinaloa Cartel uses military-grade weapons to perpetrate violence in Mexico against other traffickers, civilians, government officials and security forces, according to a U.S. indictment unsealed on April 14, 2023. U.S. Department of Justice/ Handout via Reuters

Ferraris and pet tigers

Born into one of Mexico’s most storied outlaw families, Guzmán’s five sons – Edgar, Iván,  Jesús Alfredo, Joaquín Jr. and Ovidio – grew up in luxury once unimaginable to their father, a semi-literate farm worker from Sinaloa’s mountains before becoming the head of a drug empire. (El Chapo fathered more than a dozen children, according to local media, not all of whom are reputed to be involved in drug trafficking.)

Minor social media celebrities, they flaunted their pet tigers, Ferraris and a golden AK-47 on Instagram and Twitter. Those accounts were never verified by those platforms, but a social media analyst familiar with cartel communications and two security sources told Reuters they believed the accounts were authentic.

Social media accounts linked to Los Chapitos celebrate their wealth and outlaw notoriety. Twitter

Early on, “the general perception was that Los Chapitos were spoiled brats,” said Mike Vigil, former head of DEA’s international operations.

After El Chapo’s escape from a maximum-security prison in 2001, reportedly in a laundry trolley, the brothers took a hands-on approach to the family business, security sources said.

Edgar blazed a trail for his brothers by building his own contacts and doing his own deals, the sources said. But he was killed in 2008 in Culiacán in a hail of bullets amid infighting between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.

His four surviving brothers filled the void, U.S. and Mexican security sources said.

Starting in 2009 with Jesús Alfredo, the brothers all have been indicted by U.S. authorities multiple times for alleged offenses including money laundering, possession of machine guns and trafficking of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. The U.S. State Department in 2021 put $5 million bounties on their heads, a figure recently doubled for Iván and Jesús Alfredo, while the DEA set up ChapitosTips@dea.gov to encourage snitches to rat them out. The agency in April placed Iván on the list of its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, joining Jesús Alfredo and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a Sinaloa Cartel legend and El Chapo’s alleged former business partner.

Washington has taken note of Los Chapitos’ entrepreneurial flare. The State Department in its 2021 bounty notices said Ovidio and Joaquín Jr. began smuggling chemicals from Argentina in 2008 to launch experiments in Mexico on how to produce methamphetamine.

As they built their own crew, the brothers purportedly discarded the shibboleth that Sinaloa kingpins should only sell drugs to foreigners. Los Chapitos placed pushers on street corners in Culiacán, according to cartel members and Mexican media reports.

In what would prove another consequential move, Ovidio in 2014 began to tinker with manufacturing fentanyl in Mexico, according to one of the indictments unsealed last month.

That same year, the brothers faced another major test: Their father was nabbed again, this time by Mexican marines working with the DEA. The sons helped El Chapo stage yet another audacious escape in July 2015 by organizing the construction of a mile-long tunnel to his Mexican prison cell, according to testimony that would emerge later at the elder Guzmán’s 2019 drug trafficking trial in New York.

Following the tunnel caper, Mexican authorities recaptured El Chapo in January 2016. He tapped his sons to head his portion of the trafficking empire, triggering a power struggle with López, who had run the business during the boss’s previous incarceration, according to 2017 Mexican military intelligence documents viewed by Reuters.

Captured drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is escorted by soldiers in Mexico City on Jan. 8, 2016. While he has been locked up in a U.S. prison, his sons have assumed his mantle and expanded his trafficking empire, anti-narcotics authorities say. REUTERS/Henry Romero

Los Chapitos and their posse squeezed López’s crew by crimping his finances. Near a Sinaloan dam where both groups filched water to feed their clandestine drug labs, the brothers cut off López’s access to this critical resource, crippling his manufacturing capability while keeping the taps open for themselves, according to three serving Mexican marines who spoke with Reuters.

“Los Chapitos had an advantage as they kept the production of drugs. They had money to pay sicarios, buy arms,” said one of the men, who had worked with the elite Navy unit that helped capture El Chapo in 2016.

The feud escalated into all-out war following Guzmán’s 2017 extradition to the United States. El Chapo’s sons targeted the 13 Sinaloan police officers for execution because they were on López’s payroll, according to prosecutors and former cops in Sinaloa, as well as military officials and intelligence documents reviewed by Reuters.

Police in Sinaloa did not respond to claims that the targeted officers were in league with López.

One of the U.S. indictments unsealed last month details other grisly violence allegedly meted out by Los Chapitos. Their henchmen allegedly kidnapped two officials from the federal attorney general’s office in early 2017, torturing one by inserting a corkscrew into his muscles, ripping it out, then  “placing hot chiles into his open wounds and nose.”

Iván finished off the victims with gunshots, with Jesús Alfredo pitching in to shoot one in the face, according to the indictment, which said the two brothers also killed some enemies by feeding them alive to the pet tigers they kept at their ranches.

The brothers, in their public letter, denied killing or torturing the officials or feeding people to tigers.

“A tiger may kill a person, but eat him? We do not have nor did we have tigers,” the letter stated.

Los Chapitos prevailed in their struggle with López, who was arrested in Mexico City in 2017 by the Mexican military and subsequently extradited to the United States. A star prosecution witness in El Chapo’s 2019 trial, López got his own life sentence for drug trafficking reduced. In 2021, his name disappeared from the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ public registry of inmates, fueling media speculation that he entered witness protection. López, through his lawyer, declined to comment.

On their turf in Culiacán, meanwhile, the brothers quickly solidified their grip on the local drugs market, a local trafficker told Reuters.

Jesús, an independent operator in Culiacán who ships fentanyl and heroin to the United States with the help of the syndicate, said gunmen working for Los Chapitos told street dealers they had to purchase product from their cartel faction exclusively and pay protection money. He said several friends and family members who were slow to comply were kidnapped and beaten.

Los Chapitos made it clear that “now the market belongs to them,” Jesús said.

Blue powder consistent with the appearance of fentanyl is seen at a drug lab seized by the Mexican Army in Culiacán, Mexico on Feb. 15, 2023. Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional /Handout via Reuters
Mexican Army soldiers at the same captured drug lab in Culiacán, Mexico, a stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel. Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional /Handout via Reuters

Showing who’s boss

On Dec. 1, 2018, López Obrador took office after winning Mexico’s presidency in a landslide. Within months, members of UNOPES, the Navy’s elite special forces unit that had pursued El Chapo and other traffickers, were ordered by superiors to leave Sinaloa and shut down their temporary bases there, according to the three marines and three ex-DEA officials.

The president’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

In October 2019 came the Mexican Army’s first capture of Ovidio Guzmán in Culiacán. Recalling that day, two Sinaloa Cartel members told Reuters that, within minutes, encrypted radios carried by fellow gunmen began to buzz with the news: “The boss has fallen! The boss has fallen!”

Footage released by the Mexican government shows the first arrest of Ovidio Guzmán on Oct. 17, 2019, in Culiacán, Mexico. Gunfire can be heard in the background as Sinaloa Cartel hitmen clashed with federal forces. Guzmán is seen speaking by cell phone with his brother asking that cartel soldiers be withdrawn to prevent “chaos.” Guzmán was quickly released on the orders of Mexico’s president after the violence left 14 people dead, several of them bystanders. Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional/Handout via Reuters

Hundreds of gang fighters armed with military-grade weapons rushed to the scene, firing on government troops and barricading key city streets to trap them. They also kidnapped eight soldiers and surrounded military housing where wives and children of Mexican soldiers lived, Mexican officials said.

With the pop-pop-pop of gunfire echoing in the background, encircled Mexican troops put Ovidio on the phone with his brother Iván in an attempt to get Los Chapitos to call off their gunmen. “Tell them to stand down…I don’t want chaos,” Ovidio said in video footage released by Mexico’s government.

“Hell no, we are coming to rescue you,” Iván responded, according to Sinaloan newspaper Ríodoce.

Hours later, with Culiacán resembling a war zone and scenes of pandemonium being broadcast across the globe, López Obrador ordered the army to free Ovidio.

The day of terror shocked Sinaloans, whose relationship with the cartel is complex. El Chapo had the reputation of being ruthless to those who crossed him. But locals say he provided jobs, handouts and security by punishing hoodlums preying on poor communities.

Sinaloa Cartel gunmen take up positions near a burning truck in Culiacán, Mexico, on Oct. 17, 2019, following the detention of Ovidio Guzmán by the Mexican Army. The day was dubbed “Black Thursday” by the Mexican press for the mayhem that ensued. REUTERS/Stringer

“It was the first time we saw the Sinaloa Cartel use their armed power to generate…chaos and fear to try to achieve their goals,” said Adrian López, publisher of the Sinaloan Noroeste newspaper.

For the brothers, it was a turning point. Mexico’s military and its president had bowed to them in front of the entire world. “It showed who has power,” a cartel member said.

Still, they set out to burnish their public image. One such charm offensive took place in December 2020 in San Diego, a village about 60 kilometers south of Culiacán that is home to several high-ranking cartel sicarios, a resident told Reuters. There Los Chapitos staged a music concert and raffle, whose prizes included new cars, washing machines and refrigerators, all bearing stickers emblazoned with El Chapo’s initials – JGL for Joaquín Guzmán Loera – that person and two other locals said.

A fourth declined to answer questions, saying “I don’t want them to disappear me.”

During COVID-19 lockdowns, the brothers doled out food parcels and built an outdoor school in rural Sinaloa, and they have maintained the tradition of punishing common hoodlums, Sinaloa residents and cartel members said.

Taking control

But like their father, Los Chapitos are at heart violent businessmen with a drive for manufacturing and moving drugs, security officials and cartel members said.

A gang soldier calling himself Güero, a silver pistol tucked into his waistband, last year gave Reuters a tour of a cartel safe house on the edge of Culiacán. There, two young men in white surgical gloves sat at a brown lacquered table carefully stuffing white powder into transparent capsules – methamphetamine samples for a new client looking to ship in bulk to the United States, Güero said.

A Sinaloa Cartel gunman who calls himself Güero poses with gang members preparing methamphetamine capsules at a safe house operated by Los Chapitos in Culiacán, Mexico on April 4, 2022. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

As fentanyl and meth production have soared, U.S. seizures have likewise skyrocketed. Interdictions of fentanyl alone on the U.S.-Mexico border hit 14,104 pounds (6,397 kilograms) in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2022, up more than 400% since 2019, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Inside Mexico, meanwhile, the Army had a grudge to settle.

In early January of this year, the Army told López Obrador it planned to mount a top-secret operation to recapture Ovidio, according to a then-senior government official with direct knowledge of the events. The president approved the mission but was not informed of the date and time, the source said.

Mexico’s Army and the presidency did not respond to requests for comment about the official’s account.

As hundreds of soldiers encircled Ovidio’s rural Sinaloan compound in the pre-dawn assault, a helicopter strafed targets from the air, video of the incident showed.

The re-arrest of accused drug trafficker Ovidio Guzmán by the Mexican Army on Jan. 5, 2023, sparked a rampage by Sinaloa Cartel members in several parts of Sinaloa state.  A soldier walks near a vehicle set alight in the port city of Mazatlán. REUTERS/Stringer

Cartel gunmen went on a rampage again, setting cars on fire, blocking roads and forcing Culiacán’s airport to shut by shooting at passenger jets. The violence left 29 people dead, including 10 armed forces personnel. But the sicarios were too late – a military chopper had already whisked Ovidio out of Sinaloa.

Despite that blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, fentanyl keeps flowing north. In February and March, U.S. border agents seized a combined 5,130 pounds (2,326 kilograms) of fentanyl in two of the biggest monthly hauls ever.

Previous Post

Von der Leyen arrives in Kyiv

Next Post

Ex-boxer Punches His Wife To Coma Over TV Remote

Leave a Comment: Cancel reply

I agree to the Community Guidelines and Privacy Policy.

Accra, GH
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
light rain
27 ° c
71%
13.91mh
82%
28 c 25 c
Wed
26 c 24 c
Thu
26 c 24 c
Fri
28 c 24 c
Sat
Midwife Delivers Baby In Speeding Commercial Vehicle

Midwife Delivers Baby In Speeding Commercial Vehicle

6 June, 2023.
Bryan Acheampong Bans Consumption Of Animals Found Dead In Binduri, U/E

Bryan Acheampong Bans Consumption Of Animals Found Dead In Binduri, U/E

6 June, 2023.
NLC Summons GBC Staff, FWSC Over Blocked Allowances Impasse

NLC Summons GBC Staff, FWSC Over Blocked Allowances Impasse

6 June, 2023.
Nogokpo Traditional Leaders Refuse To Rescind Decision To Summon Agyinasare

Nogokpo Traditional Leaders Refuse To Rescind Decision To Summon Agyinasare

6 June, 2023.
NSMQ 2023: St Mary’s Boys SHS Beat Shama SHS To Secure National Championship Spot

NSMQ 2023: St Mary’s Boys SHS Beat Shama SHS To Secure National Championship Spot

6 June, 2023.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MugFJv8gG_k
    • AdChoices
    • Advertise
    • About

    © 2023 Nsemgh | All Rights Reserved.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Login
    • Sign Up
    • World News
    • Local News
    • Business
    • Entertainment
      • Religion
    • Technology
      • Architecture
      • Automobile
    • Features
      • Opinion
      • Announcement
      • Obituary
    • Health
    • Life Style
      • Fashion
    • Sports
      • World Sport
      • Local Sport
    • More
      • TV
      • Market
    • Advertise with Us

    © 2023 Nsemgh | All Rights Reserved.

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password? Sign Up

    Create New Account!

    Fill the forms bellow to register

    *By registering, you agree to the Terms of Use, Community Guidelines and Privacy Policy.
    All fields are required. Log In

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In

    Add New Playlist

    you're currently offline

    We use cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.