El Chapo Guzman captured in seaside apartment with woman in daring dawn raid marines planned over month
He has been on the run for more than 12 years but a moment of passion appears to have been the downfall for the world's most wanted drug lord.
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, described as the most powerful drug trafficker in the world, was arrested in a beach condominium on Saturday.
When Mexican marines burst into the apartment he was staying in at 6.40am the discovered Guzman with an unidentified woman.
Guzman, also known as Shorty, was photographed being escorted by troops through Mexico City airport later in the day.
He is the suspected head of the deadly Sinoa cartel, believed to be responsible for moving a quarter of the drugs that enter the U.S. from Mexico.
The plot to catch Guzman, who notoriously escaped from a maximum security prison in the back of a laundry truck in 2011, had taken weeks to plan. He had been serving a 20-year sentence for bribery and criminal association.
No shots were fired as troops burst in on the 56-year-old drug lord in Mazatlan, and he was arrested along with three men believed to be his bodyguards.
Guzman faces drug trafficking and other charges, and is wanted in at least six U.S. districts, as well as Mexico.
Despite being a billionaire, Guzman was found in a relatively basic apartment. Photos of the condominium taken after the raid, show bed sheets ripped off a mattress, yellowing kitchen cabinets and uninviting tiled floors.
In the kitchen, what appears to be a pancake can be seen left in a frying pan, and a pile of fruit and vegetables has been left in a cheap plastic container.
The raid on the apartment, which according to the Globe and Mail, costs about $1,200 a month to rent lasted just a few minutes.
A team of 25 marines entered the complex on Saturday morning, overpowering two security teams installed to protect the drug kingpin.
Neighbors were first alerted to it when they heard the helicopter arrive to take Guzman away.
His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.
'The operation led by the Mexican government overnight to capture Joaquin 'Chapo' Guzman Loera is a significant victory and milestone in our common interest of combating drug trafficking, violence and illicit activity along our shared border,' Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told ABC News. 'We congratulate our Mexican partners in this achievement.'
Despite being wanted in two countries, Guzman had evaded capture for more than 12 years, but in the end his complacency led to his downfall, a former DEA official said.
The suspected drug lord is believed to lead a cartel with revenues estimated at more than $3 billion a year, and he has been ranked as one of the riches men in the world by Forbes for several years.
'He got tired of living up in the mountains and not being able to enjoy the comforts of his wealth,'
Michael S. Vigil, a former senior DEA official who was briefed on the operation, said.
Known as a legendary outlaw, Mexico's Osama bin Laden, and the world's most powerful and elusive drug lord, Guzman had been pursued for weeks, the official said.
Guzman's capture ended a long and storied manhunt. He was rumored to live everywhere from Argentina to Guatemala.
In more than a decade on the run, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.
His fortune has grown to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the 'World's Most Powerful People' and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.
His Sinaloa Cartel grew bloodier and more powerful, taking over much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border, including such prized cities as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.
Guzman's play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world.
In little more than a year, Mexico's biggest marijuana bust, 134 tons, and its biggest cultivation were tied to Sinaloa, as were a giant underground methamphetamine lab in western Mexico and hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals seized in Mexico and Guatemala.
His cartel's tentacles now extend as far as Australia thanks to a sophisticated, international distribution system for cocaine and methamphetamines.
Guzman did all that with a $7 million bounty on his head and while evading thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries devoted to his capture.
A U.S. federal indictment unsealed in San Diego in 1995 charges Guzman and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import over eight tons of cocaine and money laundering.
A provisional arrest warrant was issued as a result of the indictment, according to the state department.
Guzman is still celebrated in folk songs and is said to have enjoyed protection from villagers in the rugged hills of Sinaloa and Durango where he has hidden from authorities.
He is also thought to have contacts inside law enforcement that helped him evade capture, including a near-miss in February 2012 in the southern Baja California resort of Cabo San Lucas just after an international meeting of foreign ministers.
He was vacationing in Cabo during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
'There's no drug-trafficking organization in Mexico with the scope, the savvy, the operational ability, expertise and knowledge as the Sinaloa cartel,' said one former U.S. law enforcement official, who couldn't be quoted by name for security reasons. 'You've kind of lined yourself up the New York Yankees of the drug trafficking world.'
More than 70,000 people have been killed in drug violence since former President Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to drug hotspots upon taking office on December 1, 2006.
Many say his government's assault on drug cartels and arrest of kingpins actually fueled the growth of Sinaloa and its major rival, the Zetas, which are now going head-to-heard for lucrative territory.
The two are battling for Nuevo Laredo, a play Guzman lost to the Zetas in 2005, and hitting each other deep inside their respective territories. Sinaloa took over a key Zeta port in Veracruz, while bands of Zetas have attacked their rival deep inside the cartel's home, western Sinaloa and Jalisco states.
The conflict has led to the gruesome dumping of dozens of bodies by both organizations in their battlegrounds.
Authorities said the battle also weakened the Sinaloa cartel and that key hits on the top leadership in Guzman's organization had shaken up his inner circle. In the first months of 2012, the Mexican army and federal police arrested a half dozen key Sinaloa people, including two major cocaine suppliers and a man described as the head of Guzman's security detail.
In April last year, a video made the rounds on the Internet of a man whom U.S. authorities believed was Guzman, possibly indicating a security breach in his inner circle.
In 2012, Colombian police seized 116 properties worth $15 million that they say were bought for Guzman, while the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was placing financial sanctions on a wife and several of his sons.
While his capture may have symbolic importance, many, including Guzman's cartel partner, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, say it won't stop the violence or flow of drugs through Mexico to the United States.
'When it comes to the capos, jailed, dead or extradited - their replacements are ready,' Zambada said in an exclusive interview published in Proceso magazine in April 2010.
Growing up poor, Guzman was drawn to the money being made by the flow of illegal drugs through his home state of Sinaloa.
He joined the Guadalajara cartel, run by Mexican Godfather Miguel Angel Gallardo, and rose quickly through the ranks as a ruthless businessman and skilled networker, making key contacts with politicians and police to ensure his loads made it through without problems.
After Gallardo was arrested in 1989, the gang split, and Guzman took control of Sinaloa's operations.
The Sinaloa cartel violently seized lucrative drug routes from rivals and built sophisticated tunnels under the U.S. border to move its loads.
In 1993, gunmen linked to the Tijuana-based Arrellano Felix cartel attempted to assassinate Guzman at the Guadalajara airport but instead killed Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo.
Guzman was rumored to have once entered a restaurant in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, where his henchmen confiscated every patron's cellphone so their boss could eat without fear of an ambush.
He was also rumored to have staged an elaborate public wedding in 2007 to an 18-year-old bride that was attended by officials and local police.
Federal police say they raided the town that day, but got there just a few hours too late.
Guzman had long been reported to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles.
His location was part of Mexican folklore, with rumors circulating of him being everywhere from Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its 'Golden Triangle,' a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.
An archbishop in northern Durango state said in April 2009 that Guzman lived in a town nearby. Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain army lieutenants with a note: 'Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo.'
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, described as the most powerful drug trafficker in the world, was arrested in a beach condominium on Saturday.
When Mexican marines burst into the apartment he was staying in at 6.40am the discovered Guzman with an unidentified woman.
Guzman, also known as Shorty, was photographed being escorted by troops through Mexico City airport later in the day.
He is the suspected head of the deadly Sinoa cartel, believed to be responsible for moving a quarter of the drugs that enter the U.S. from Mexico.
The plot to catch Guzman, who notoriously escaped from a maximum security prison in the back of a laundry truck in 2011, had taken weeks to plan. He had been serving a 20-year sentence for bribery and criminal association.
No shots were fired as troops burst in on the 56-year-old drug lord in Mazatlan, and he was arrested along with three men believed to be his bodyguards.
Guzman faces drug trafficking and other charges, and is wanted in at least six U.S. districts, as well as Mexico.
Despite being a billionaire, Guzman was found in a relatively basic apartment. Photos of the condominium taken after the raid, show bed sheets ripped off a mattress, yellowing kitchen cabinets and uninviting tiled floors.
In the kitchen, what appears to be a pancake can be seen left in a frying pan, and a pile of fruit and vegetables has been left in a cheap plastic container.
The raid on the apartment, which according to the Globe and Mail, costs about $1,200 a month to rent lasted just a few minutes.
A team of 25 marines entered the complex on Saturday morning, overpowering two security teams installed to protect the drug kingpin.
Neighbors were first alerted to it when they heard the helicopter arrive to take Guzman away.
His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.
'The operation led by the Mexican government overnight to capture Joaquin 'Chapo' Guzman Loera is a significant victory and milestone in our common interest of combating drug trafficking, violence and illicit activity along our shared border,' Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told ABC News. 'We congratulate our Mexican partners in this achievement.'
Despite being wanted in two countries, Guzman had evaded capture for more than 12 years, but in the end his complacency led to his downfall, a former DEA official said.
The suspected drug lord is believed to lead a cartel with revenues estimated at more than $3 billion a year, and he has been ranked as one of the riches men in the world by Forbes for several years.
'He got tired of living up in the mountains and not being able to enjoy the comforts of his wealth,'
Michael S. Vigil, a former senior DEA official who was briefed on the operation, said.
Known as a legendary outlaw, Mexico's Osama bin Laden, and the world's most powerful and elusive drug lord, Guzman had been pursued for weeks, the official said.
Guzman's capture ended a long and storied manhunt. He was rumored to live everywhere from Argentina to Guatemala.
In more than a decade on the run, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.
His fortune has grown to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the 'World's Most Powerful People' and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.
His Sinaloa Cartel grew bloodier and more powerful, taking over much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border, including such prized cities as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.
Guzman's play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world.
In little more than a year, Mexico's biggest marijuana bust, 134 tons, and its biggest cultivation were tied to Sinaloa, as were a giant underground methamphetamine lab in western Mexico and hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals seized in Mexico and Guatemala.
His cartel's tentacles now extend as far as Australia thanks to a sophisticated, international distribution system for cocaine and methamphetamines.
Guzman did all that with a $7 million bounty on his head and while evading thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries devoted to his capture.
A U.S. federal indictment unsealed in San Diego in 1995 charges Guzman and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import over eight tons of cocaine and money laundering.
A provisional arrest warrant was issued as a result of the indictment, according to the state department.
Guzman is still celebrated in folk songs and is said to have enjoyed protection from villagers in the rugged hills of Sinaloa and Durango where he has hidden from authorities.
He is also thought to have contacts inside law enforcement that helped him evade capture, including a near-miss in February 2012 in the southern Baja California resort of Cabo San Lucas just after an international meeting of foreign ministers.
He was vacationing in Cabo during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
'There's no drug-trafficking organization in Mexico with the scope, the savvy, the operational ability, expertise and knowledge as the Sinaloa cartel,' said one former U.S. law enforcement official, who couldn't be quoted by name for security reasons. 'You've kind of lined yourself up the New York Yankees of the drug trafficking world.'
More than 70,000 people have been killed in drug violence since former President Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to drug hotspots upon taking office on December 1, 2006.
Many say his government's assault on drug cartels and arrest of kingpins actually fueled the growth of Sinaloa and its major rival, the Zetas, which are now going head-to-heard for lucrative territory.
The two are battling for Nuevo Laredo, a play Guzman lost to the Zetas in 2005, and hitting each other deep inside their respective territories. Sinaloa took over a key Zeta port in Veracruz, while bands of Zetas have attacked their rival deep inside the cartel's home, western Sinaloa and Jalisco states.
The conflict has led to the gruesome dumping of dozens of bodies by both organizations in their battlegrounds.
Authorities said the battle also weakened the Sinaloa cartel and that key hits on the top leadership in Guzman's organization had shaken up his inner circle. In the first months of 2012, the Mexican army and federal police arrested a half dozen key Sinaloa people, including two major cocaine suppliers and a man described as the head of Guzman's security detail.
In April last year, a video made the rounds on the Internet of a man whom U.S. authorities believed was Guzman, possibly indicating a security breach in his inner circle.
In 2012, Colombian police seized 116 properties worth $15 million that they say were bought for Guzman, while the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was placing financial sanctions on a wife and several of his sons.
While his capture may have symbolic importance, many, including Guzman's cartel partner, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, say it won't stop the violence or flow of drugs through Mexico to the United States.
'When it comes to the capos, jailed, dead or extradited - their replacements are ready,' Zambada said in an exclusive interview published in Proceso magazine in April 2010.
Growing up poor, Guzman was drawn to the money being made by the flow of illegal drugs through his home state of Sinaloa.
He joined the Guadalajara cartel, run by Mexican Godfather Miguel Angel Gallardo, and rose quickly through the ranks as a ruthless businessman and skilled networker, making key contacts with politicians and police to ensure his loads made it through without problems.
After Gallardo was arrested in 1989, the gang split, and Guzman took control of Sinaloa's operations.
The Sinaloa cartel violently seized lucrative drug routes from rivals and built sophisticated tunnels under the U.S. border to move its loads.
In 1993, gunmen linked to the Tijuana-based Arrellano Felix cartel attempted to assassinate Guzman at the Guadalajara airport but instead killed Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo.
Guzman was rumored to have once entered a restaurant in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, where his henchmen confiscated every patron's cellphone so their boss could eat without fear of an ambush.
He was also rumored to have staged an elaborate public wedding in 2007 to an 18-year-old bride that was attended by officials and local police.
Federal police say they raided the town that day, but got there just a few hours too late.
Guzman had long been reported to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles.
His location was part of Mexican folklore, with rumors circulating of him being everywhere from Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its 'Golden Triangle,' a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.
An archbishop in northern Durango state said in April 2009 that Guzman lived in a town nearby. Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain army lieutenants with a note: 'Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo.'
Source : AP , DailyMail
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