Malcolm Beith - The Last Narco: Inside the Hunt for El Chapo, the Worlds Most Wanted Drug Lord

THE LAST NARCO

INSIDE THE HUNT FOR EL CHAPO, THE WORLDS MOST WANTED DRUG LORD

MALCOLM BEITH

Copyright 2010 by Malcolm Beith

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First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Penguin Group, London England

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8021-9622-4

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Im a farmer
Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo
10 June 1993

El Chapo

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera
Born on 4 April 1957 in La Tuna de Badiraguato, Sinaloa. The head of the Sinaloa cartel, he is Mexicos most wanted man.

El Padrino

Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo
Born in Culiacan, Sinaloa, on 8 January 1946. El Padrino literally, the Godfather is widely considered to be the founder of the modern Mexican drug trade.

Rafael Caro Quintero
Born on 24 October 1954, in Badiraguato, Sinaloa. Was a leading drug trafficker in the 1970s and 1980s.

Don Neto

Ernesto Fonseca
Born in 1942, in Badiraguato, Sinaloa. Was a leading drug trafficker in the 1970s and 1980s.

El Guero

Hector Luis Palma Salazar
A former car thief, reportedly born in California. El Guero began working for Felix Gallardo as a gunman. He is widely credited for having trained Chapo.

El Mayo

Ismael Zambada Garcia
Born in El Alamo, Sinaloa, on 1 January 1948. El Mayo is a key ally of Chapo.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes
Born in Guamuchilito, Sinaloa. He became head of the Juarez cartel in the early 1990s. He has two brothers, Rodolfo and Vicente.

El Azul

Juan Jose Esparragosa-Moreno
Born in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, on 3 February 1949. El Azul served as a senior adviser to Chapo.

The Beltran Leyva brothers

The five Beltran Leyva brothers, Marcos Arturo (El Barbas), Alfredo (Mochomo), Hector, Mario and Carlos, were all drug traffickers born in Badiraguato.

The Arellano Felix brothers

The Arellano Felix brothers, Francisco Rafael, Benjamin, Carlos, Eduardo, Ramon, Luis Fernando and Francisco Javier were born in Culiacan, Sinaloa, and later ran the Tijuana cartel.

Juan Garcia Abrego
Born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on 13 September 1944. Garcia Abrego founded the Gulf cartel.

El Mata-Amigos

Osiel Cardenas Guillen
Born in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on 18 May 1967. Cardenas Guillen became the head of the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s and created Los Zetas.

Los Zetas

A paramilitary wing comprising thirty-one former Mexican special forces soldiers who deserted to work for Cardenas Guillen and the Gulf cartel.

La Familia

A group of drug traffickers based in Michoacan, which rose to prominence around 2006.

Jose de Jesus Amezcua Contreras
Founder of the Mexican methamphetamine industry.

Capo: a drug kingpin

Gatillero: a gunman, sometimes written in other texts as gavillero

Narco: anyone affiliated with the drug trade, from couriers to kingpins. In this book, the term in its singular is largely used to denote a high-level narco.

Narco-corrido: a song commemorating exploits of drug traffickers

Narco-manta: a banner hung in public, either taunting rival narcos or denouncing authorities for complicity in drug trafficking

Sicario: hired assassin, or killer. Usually part of the capos inner circle, but sometimes contracted out.

AFI: Federal Investigations Agency, Mexicos equivalent to the FBI

DEA: US Drug Enforcement Administration

CNDH: National Human Rights Commission

FBI: US Federal Bureau of Investigation

PAN: National Action Party

PGR: Mexican Attorney Generals Office

PRD: Democratic Revolution Party

PRI: Institutional Revolutionary Party

Sedena: Mexican Defence Secretariat (ministry)

SIEDO: Organized Crime Investigation Unit

SSP: Public Security Secretariat

You tell everyone, you spread the word Chapo is in charge here. Chapos the law. There is no law but Chapo. Chapo is boss. Not Mochomo, not El Barbas. Chapo is the law.

Carloss eyes glazed over as he spoke about his boss, Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo. In the hills beyond the town of Badiraguato, Sinaloa, in the distance over Carloss shoulder, was Mexicos most wanted man. Just over there, beyond the river, past the lush vegetation, perhaps a little further amid the green peaks covered in dark grey clouds, was the nations most powerful drug lord.

Nothing but steep, rocky dirt roads lead from Badiraguato to Chapos mountain lairs; a grinning Carlos said he would take me to his boss. Then he thought better of it. He frowned. There was no way wed be allowed to pass in a cuatrimoto, as all-terrain vehicles are known in this part of northwestern Mexico, in the mountain range called the Sierra Madre Occidental. Riding a donkey through wouldnt disguise the fact that I was a guero, or blond, either; they might just kill him for bringing me along, Carlos mumbled.

It was only eight in the morning, and his breath reeked of beer and tequila from the night before. It looked like he had slept in the red plaid shirt, jeans and cowboy boots he was wearing, if he had slept at all.

Carlos lit a cigarette. He appeared to be sobering up. He looked me in the eye, and continued in his gravelly monotone.

You really want to meet Chapo? Everyone wants to meet him. To find him. You wont. They wont.

*

Since a dramatic escape from a maximum-security prison in the central Mexican state of Jalisco in 2001, Chapo, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, has been on the run.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the whereabouts of the man it claims has built a multi-billion-dollar fortune through the drug trade since the 1990s, killed hundreds of enemies in the process, and earned the reputation as the most powerful