Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
in 2016, infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was arrested for the final time. The leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organisation in the world, had escaped from maximum security prison twice – in 2001 through a laundry cart, and in 2015 through a mile-long tunnel with an entry from his prison cell shower.
The 2015 escape resulted in a bloody third arrest in January 2016, after attempting to run away through a tunnel that led to a sewer system and stealing a faulty car. At the height of his drug business, El Chapo was the richest drug lord in the world, with over $14 billion to his name. His trade relied heavily on his elaborate tunnel network snaking underneath the US-Mexico border.
He was the world’s most wnted drug trafficker, for decades the ruthless el chapo Guzman destroyed millions of lives and reaped billions of dollars.
but when he was finaly captured 2016 in mexico wearing a filthy singlet over middle- aged paunch, el chapo looked more like ” el cheepo”.
while law enforcement authorities rejoiced at his arrest it’s nowehere near mission accomplished in the war against drugs. just the opposite.
buisness is booming, record amounts of narcotics are stil lbeing smuggled around the world including Austrialia.
and el chapo sinloa cartel continues to rule with deadly force.
January 8th 2016
it was bloody and violent. mexico’s elite marines were taking no chances,re-cuptering the world’s biggest drug dealer Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
but their war on drugs goes way beyibd bringing down this kingpin.
the border between america and mexico is the real front line in narcotics battles.
these imposing fences.often built right through the middles of towns.
apear totally impenetrable , but the’re not.
you just need to go underground to see why, a network of secret tunnels literally crisscrossed the two countries.freeways built by El chapo. where he plied his illegal trade.the tunnels is 70 ft deep .that’s about 23 to 24 meters. right above is the border fence.
it is amazing that such a huge tunnel like this could built like someone like El chapo right under the feet of authorities.
see the electrical wire in there. this is all original. this is just one of nearly 2oo tunnels that have been detected so far by US authorities.
tunnels can take up to two years to build and cost millions. but it’s a small price compared with the billions of dollars and drugs shipped throug here.
everytime you shut another tunnel down that’s another slap to people like El Chapo. considering the time and effort goes to constructing these that’s a big blow , 2 years of hard work down the drain. and they got t o go to plan B.
But El Chapo didn’t need plan B.when authoritites thought they’d well and truly locked him away two years ago
in mexico’s altiplano maximum security prison .
july 11th 2015
last july he simply got his tunnel men to engineer and dig him a dearing escape.
prison cameras see El Chapo calmly walk to the shower block in the corner of the cell.
6 seconds later he’s gone.
into a ventilated tunnel already rigged with lights
he jumps on this motorbike bolted to rail tracks
and disapears.
when you come here and see for yourself jusy howfar this tunnel went, you ‘ve got to edmit it ‘s pretty impressive.it started at the jail there .went all the way underneath these cornfields
right along here to this house nearly 2 kilometers away.
it was an audacious escape that made headlines around the world. for mexico’s authorities it was humiliating.
this was El Chapos secons prison busted.
his the houdini of the criminal world .
Jim dinkins a former director of america’s homeland security investigation had been tracking the drug king for over a decade.
to understand just who El chapo is . you need to start here in sinaloa , his mexican home state.this place oozes drugs and drug money.
El Chapo was born into poverty but soon became the richest and most powerful drug lord in the world.
his sucess made him a local hero.
” he´s smart in many ways , not as in street smart ,he knows how to influence people.he does it by imitidation or by making them rich . i would say he’s charismatic as in the sense he has a mass of lot of followers that are envious of his ability to rise up through the streets poorly educated in the mass and making us one of the rich richest and most powerful man in the world.”
-dinkins
Mexico’s recent history has been marked by violent drug was .which have killed more than 100. 000 of people
El Chapo sinaloa cartel is among the most vicious.
and here in the border town Tijuana , the police drug squad has it squarely in its sights
but enforcing the law is not easy when so many in the community are on the receiving end of bribes.
young people see the drug traffickers as heroes.
former police chief Julian Leyzaola has been called mexico’s bravest man.eight times he’s been targeted by the drug cartels and the last time last year they almost won.
as he sat in a car a gunman walked up and shot him at close range.it was three shots.and the last in he’s spinal.
in the street of Tijuana.six drug cartels by for dominace and a the huge drug profits.
El chapo’s cartel controls 60 % of the drug market which earns him about 3 billion dollars a year. and a slice of those profits comes from austrialia.
and the reason for taking drugs to austrialia is pure and not a profit .in United states the average kilo of cocaine in the streets of the united state might get you 25, 000 dollars. in austrialia you could make 250 , 000 dolllar of that same kilo.
and to be successful in australia is it reasonable to assume that El chapo has a network of people in Australia.there’s usually a homegrown network that already exsiting there for a distribution of the street level.
El Chapo has wealth and fame and not suprisingly loads of confidence.
which might explain why still on the run he gave an interview to hollywood actor sean penn. he happily admitted he was in the carcotics business but not the cause of the devastating impact.
“if there was no consumption, there would be no sales.it is true that consumtion ,day after day ,becomes gbigger and bigger … so it sells and sells.”
-El Chapo
El shapo’s flotations with hollywood proved to be part of his undowing.
mexican authorities were monitoring sean penn and his companion mexican actress kate del castillo, resonable to suspect the he was thought he was invincible?
when he escaped the second time dinkins thought he’d keep his head down and be so greatful that he was out . that police never hear from chapo again . but El Chapo’s ego once again and his greed just for power and for notoriety just overcom him.
just 6 months after his daring prison escape mexican marines cornered the drug lord in los mochis on the country ‘s east coast.
this was a ferocious battle when it was all over five of El Chapos men were dead inside this house.
even though El Chapo escaped through a tunnel and into a sewer system
he was finally nabbed in a stolen car trying get out of town.
El chapo is now back behind bars in the same prison he escaped from .
this time security has been overhauled,now hundreds of police and militarynew cameras and motion sensors have been installed in he’s cell and there are even dogs trained specifically to sniff out El Chapo scent. it’s some comfort to those whose lives he’s devastated including former police chief julian leyzola wh0 is paralyzed.
Us authorities are seeking El chapo’s extradition the hope is that he’ll spend the rest of his life imprisoned in america. -that may take month.
for now knight has fallen on El Chapo’s free run in Sinaloa .
but as he stands alone in his cell ,no one doubts for a minute that he’s already planning his next escape.