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View information about El Chapo Guzman's arrest and mugshot here on famouslyarrested.com El Chapo Guzman. You can view information about El Chapo Guzman's arrest and other celebrity arrests. You can view by name or by category. We also have included El Chapo Guzman mugshots.
El Chapo Guzman
- Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman
- Drug Lord
- February 22, 2014
- Drug Trafficker
- Being Held in Maximum Security Mexican Prison
The arrest of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman:
They say good things come in small packages. But not always. The man nicknamed "El Chapo" -- for Shorty – because he is only 5 feet, six inches tall, became Mexico's top drug kingpin from 2003 until his arrest in February, 2014.
Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera was considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world by the U.S. Treasury Department and was even ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful people in the world every year since 2009.
His Sinaloa cartel smuggled tons of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into the United States. They also dealt in methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin across North America and Europe. And they violently eliminated rivals.
Guzman was arrested in 1993 in Guatemala and returned to Mexico where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, after paying off some prison guards, he escaped a maximum security Mexican prison in 2001 and was wanted by Mexico, the U.S. and Interpol.
He was recaptured on February 22, 2014 in Mexico without a shot being fired and was transferred back to prison with a beefed up security contingent. In April, 2014 Mexican authorities said they had no intention of extraditing Guzman to the U.S., until after he served his time for all of his crimes in Mexico.
The U.S. still wanted him, and Mexican authorities said a formal extradition request made in June, 2015 was being reviewed. But by July 11th, El Chapo escaped from his maximum security Mexican prison, through a tunnel in the shower floor of his cell.
His escape was captured by surveillance cameras.
At least 18 minutes passed before anyone was alerted that Guzman was gone and he escaped through a tunnel
The manhunt goes on, but U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials say they and Mexican authorities are confident they can catch him again.
And they did, in early 2016, and Guzman again went to a Mexican jail.
Then, on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, El Chapo was extradited to the U.S. on January 19, 2017 after a Mexican court ruled against his last bid against extradition.
Mexico insisted it was based on their own judicial calendar but one Mexican official called it a “farewell gift” to outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama rather than an olive branch to Trump, who vowed to create a border wall that he would force Mexico to pay for to reduce the flow of undocumented immigrants into the United States.
Whatever the case, Guzman was flown into Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, New York and then whisked away to face charges of delivering tons of heroin, cocaine and marijuana in an indictment that had been handed down in a federal court in the Eastern District of New York.