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

Hunting El Chapo, the Worlds
Most Wanted Drug Lord

MALCOLM BEITH

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published 2010

Copyright Malcolm Beith, 2010

All rights reserved

Penguin would like to thank the following for their kind contribution: () US Drug Enforcement Administration.

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-195933-7

PENGUIN BOOKS

The Last Narco

Malcolm Beith is a writer based in Mexico City. He has written about the drug war for Newsweek, Slate, World Politics Review and Janes Intelligence Weekly, and contributed to Foreign Policy and Soldier of Fortune. A former editor of The News, Mexicos national English-language daily, he has also been an editor at Newsweek International, where he reported from Iraq, Haiti, Mexico and Colombia.

malcolmbeith.com

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.

: a drug kingpin

: a gunman, sometimes written in other texts as gavillero

: 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.

: a song commemorating exploits of drug traffickers

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

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

: Federal Investigations Agency, Mexicos equivalent to the FBI

: US Drug Enforcement Administration

: National Human Rights Commission

: US Federal Bureau of Investigation

: National Action Party

: Mexican Attorney Generals Office

: Democratic Revolution Party

: Institutional Revolutionary Party

: Mexican Defence Secretariat (ministry)

: Organized Crime Investigation Unit

: 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 north-western 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.