Events: Topics: Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, dodged international manhunt for more than a decade after escaping from a maximum-security prison in the Mexican state of Jalisco in 2001.
While on the run, Guzmán reportedly travelled with a large entourage of armed bodyguards equivalent to those of a head of state, using a vast surveillance network and bullet-proof cars, aircraft, and all-terrain vehicles to avoid capture.
His whereabouts were a subject of Mexican folklore, with reports and rumors circulating that he was in many parts of Mexico, especially in an area known as the "Golden Triangle", a drug-producing region in the Sierra Madre mountains where Guzmán grew up.
[11] In the nearby communities close to the prison, the Mexican Army searched for Guzmán; they raided houses, ranches, and even government buildings, but they did not find traces of the drug lord.
In Guadalajara, security forces raided a house of one of Guzmán's associates, confiscating weapons, drugs, phones, computers, and thousands of dollars in cash, but they did not find their target.
[19][18] On 22 August 2003, rumors spread that Guzmán had been captured in Monterrey, Nuevo León; Mexico's Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha denied the allegations.
[22] In November 2004, soldiers raided another of Guzmán's ranches north of La Tuna, Badiraguato, after they detected his voice through a satellite phone line they had been tapping for several months.
[24][25] In November 2005, Guzmán was supposedly seen in Culiacán, Sinaloa repeating the same exploit he had done months before; according to an eyewitness, the drug lord arrived at Las Palmas, an eatery in one of the city's busy streets, with 15 of his bodyguards—all of them sporting AK-47 assault rifles.
[27] During the last days of the administration of President Vicente Fox (2000–2006), General Rolando Eugenio Hidalgo Eddy was appointed at the 9th Military Zone with clear orders to capture Guzmán.
[42][43] On 25 March 2008, a massive shootout in Guatemala's border with El Salvador reached the headlines in Mexico; local media outlets reported that among the eleven dead was Guzmán.
[51] The Secretariat of National Defense stated on 11 August 2009 that Guzmán may have lived inside a drug laboratory in Tamazula, Durango for some time, following a raid conducted by Mexican security forces.
According to documents provided by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Guzmán stated to those present that they had to defend the cartel's drug shipments at all costs, even if it required an armed standoff with Mexican or U.S. law enforcement.
[65] On 24 February 2010, Honduran intelligence reports indicated that Guzmán was making sporadic visits to El Paraíso, Copán to take some time off from the day-to-day operations of his cartel and to rest from the pressure of law enforcement in Mexico.
[67] Following a supposed operation led by the Mexican Navy in the rural community of Alchichica in the municipality of Tepeyahualco, Puebla, rumors spread on social media that Guzmán had been arrested on 14 October 2010.
Following a lead conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that called for his arrest, Guzmán reportedly went to the Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires and flew to Paraguay, Colombia, and then to Europe using a false name.
[74] On 21 February 2012, the Mexican Federal Police—acting on intelligence information provided by U.S. law enforcement—raided a mansion in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur in an attempt to capture Guzmán.
[87][88] That same month, confidential reports from anonymous officials in Mexican and U.S. governments stating that the Pentagon had plans to send the U.S. Navy SEALs to capture or kill Guzmán in Mexico were leaked to the media.
[98] On 21 February 2013, it was reported that Guzmán was killed in a gun fight with Guatemalan security forces near the border between Guatemala and Mexico, in the town of San Francisco, El Petén.
[104] The DEA spokesperson Rusty Payne refused to comment on Guzmán's whereabouts, but Woodrow Wilson Center expert Eric Olson said that it was possible that the drug lord was hiding in Honduras, given its institutional weakness and porous borders.
[108] Although his whereabouts were unknown, the authorities believed that he was likely hiding in the "Golden Triangle" (Spanish: Triángulo Dorado), an area that encompasses parts of Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua in the Sierra Madre region.
The region is a major producer of marijuana and opium poppy in Mexico,[109] and its remoteness from the urban areas makes it an attractive territory for the production of synthetic drugs in clandestine labs and for its mountains that serve as possible hideouts.
They believed that Guzmán was venturing to Culiacán and other urban areas from the Sierra Madre mountains more often than usual because he was tired of the austere life in the countryside and wanted to enjoy his wealth more comfortably.
[116] On 13 February 2014, the PGR, Federal Police, and the Mexican Navy arrested Sinaloa Cartel chief Joel Enrique Sandoval Romero (alias "El 19") and four of his associates.
[127] Intelligence information began to focus on Mario Hidalgo Argüello (alias "El Nariz"), a man who formed part of Guzmán's inner circle as his personal assistant.
On the night of 16 February 2014, Guzmán arrived at a property owned by his ex-wife Griselda Pérez López in Culiacán and ordered Hidalgo Argüello to pick up his dinner at a local restaurant.
Guzmán was inside the domicile with Hoo Ramírez and a female cook known as La Chapis when the Navy arrived, but the steel door gave them ample time to escape through the tunnel.
Like the other arrested lieutenants, López Osorio was cooperative with law enforcement upon questioning, and stated that Guzmán and Hoo Ramírez had been picked up at a storm drain outside of Culiacán by him.
[82] On 20 February 2014, Mexican authorities arrested Jesús Peña González (alias "El 20"), a top Sinaloa Cartel enforcer and leader of Zambada's security circle.
At the same time on the fourth floor, a group of six soldiers made their way to Apartment #401, where they discovered Guzmán's bodyguard Hoo Ramírez guarding the entrance with an AK-47 assault rifle.
[82][131] By the time of his arrest, Guzmán was regarded as the world's most-wanted criminal and as the top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, a drug trafficking organization whose influence stretched across several continents.