Shorty Guzman's 'finest hour': the story of the legendary drug lord who flooded the USA with cocaine

“Drug trafficking is our culture, which we inherited from our parents” - this phrase belongs to the famous El Chapo (Shorty) Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loer. It is this man that the Americans call "Public Enemy No. 1". He managed to control a quarter of drug traffic in the United States, he was involved in dozens of murders and abductions. Now he is on trial in New York, and millions of people around the world are watching this process. Writes about it Big Picture.

All of El Chapo's movements to the United States are accompanied by unprecedented security measures. Dozens of armored vehicles, policemen in body armor armed with machine guns, helicopters combing the sky. These are far from unnecessary precautions - Guzman is facing a life sentence, and the American authorities know very well that the criminal will use every opportunity to avoid punishment.

El Chapo managed to escape from custody twice. A keen mind, courage and, of course, almost unlimited financial resources, made all escapes successful. For the first time, the head of a powerful drug cartel left the prison in a basket of dirty linen, just in the back of a truck, through the prison gate.

The second escape was technically more difficult. Dozens, if not hundreds of people took part in its preparation. For Guzman, a kilometer-long underground tunnel was prepared right into the cell - through which the prisoner left the prison on a motorcycle.

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Both in the first and in the second case, it would have been impossible to carry out the operation without the support of the prison staff, but everyone who was involved in protecting the offender, like one, shrugged.

This is not surprising at all, because El Chapo was able to bribe not only prison guards and prison governors, but also ministers and even presidents. In addition, Guzman was known among the people as a kind of generous Robin Hood - cruel, but noble. This image helped him - a mixture of respect, gratitude and fear worked for ordinary Mexicans without fail.

But the main reason for which he was caught by the police, in all cases, were women. He was married 4 times, but he also did not miss the opportunity to have a mistress and have an affair on the side. In addition, he loved women much younger.

The last arrest, which may well turn out to be fatal for Joaquin, is also connected with the girl. Having escaped through a tunnel that has already gone down in history, El Chapo immediately set up a date with actress Kate Del Castillo. The celebrity not only agreed to the meeting, but also brought Oscar-winning Sean Penn with her.

El Chapo seized the moment and recorded a 17-minute video of the stars, which he bragged about online. The US special services worked very clearly to determine the location of Korotyshka from the material received. Events developed so rapidly that El Chapo, who had excellent connections in the US intelligence services and was dozens of times ahead of the events, did not even have time to blink an eye.

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As a result, Shorty ends up in the dock in a specially equipped bulletproof capsule. The main witness was Jesus Sambado, who for many years was the chief accountant of the Sinaloa drug cartel and a close friend of Guzman himself.

After the court hearings, El Chapo ended up in a prison specially equipped for him, which, due to its inaccessibility, is capable of plugging the notorious Guantanamo Bay. Guzman was kept in solitary confinement, where daylight barely got in, with a light bulb turned on around the clock, and special forces guarded around the clock near the door of his cell.

According to the lawyers, El Chapo was placed in unbearable, absolutely inhuman conditions, which brought their ward cruel torment. According to them, the prisoner had a mental loss, hallucinations, seizures and many other dangerous symptoms, requiring Guzman's transfer to a prison hospital. The defeated head of the Sinaloa drug cartel did not really look good - aged and sick.

But the tricks that were relevant in his native Mexico did not pass in the United States, and the trial continues. In addition to supplying drugs on a truly industrial scale, Shorty is charged with numerous other crimes, including 33 proven murders. In fact, it will most likely never be possible to accurately determine the number of people killed by the militants and killers of the Sinaloa cartel.

Guzman's lawyers understand perfectly well that they will not be able to “smear” the ward. Even with a perfectly aligned defense, they will be able to knock off a criminal 10-20 years. In the case when it comes to several life sentences, it is even ridiculous to talk about it. That is why lawyers, well motivated by the money of the drug cartel, try to involve as many famous and influential people with whom El Chapo has dealt in the process.

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El Chapo's line of defense is now built on the fact that the "poor fellow" was made a scapegoat by the powers that be. The multimillion-dollar bribes from the hands of Joaquin Guzman were not disdained by the two presidents of Mexico, many ministers and major army and police officials.

During his activity, Guzman imported more than $ 14 billion worth of cocaine into the United States. This is hardly a complete figure, but it is precisely this figure that can be confirmed by the prosecutors making the charges. Cocaine was purchased in Colombia in batches of 15 tons, at a price of about $ 3 per kilogram, and was shipped in dozens of different ways to the United States via Los Angeles. In the process of transportation, each kilogram of the potion increased in price by $ 7-9 thousand, but it was nothing.

In Los Angeles itself, the drug retailed for $ 20 thousand per kilogram, in Chicago - for $ 25, and reaching New York - for $ 35 thousand. Cocaine was carried in hand luggage, under the second bottom of trucks and wagons, in food products, in the stomachs of drug couriers and even in live fish. Guzman was also one of the first to start delivering drugs across the border through underground tunnels. From Colombia, consignments were transported by private flights and artisanal submarines by sea.

The Sinaloa cartel had excellent logistics, and each responsible employee knew his job thoroughly. No one had the right to make a mistake - any mistake related to business could be atoned for only by the death of the offender. Nevertheless, there were a lot of people willing to work with Guzman - all his assistants very quickly became, albeit underground, but multimillionaires.

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El Chapo has been building his destiny since childhood. Born 60 years ago into an opium farmer's family, Joaquin began his working career in the candy and orange trade. The boy could not go to school, even if he wanted to - the nearest educational institution was almost 100 km from his village. When the boy grew up a little, his father gave him to help his brother, who was involved in the trade in local opiates and Colombian cocaine. It was at his own uncle, Shorty, that he passed his "universities", which helped him head the most famous drug cartel on the planet.

Today El Chapo can only remember the old days and hope for a miracle. The American authorities are unlikely to allow again to perform a cinematic stunt and hide - Shorty will sit down seriously and forever. Guzman was not even allowed to hug his spouse. Emma Coroner Ispuro, a former beauty queen who married a middle-aged mafioso at the age of 18, is constantly spinning around the court with her twin daughters - she allows herself to be filmed by hundreds of cameras depicting an extreme degree of despair.

Joaquin Guzmán was allowed only one short press interview, during which he said the following about his business: “If drugs weren’t bought, nobody would be selling them. Demand is growing every day and turnover too ”. Unfortunately, El Chapo is right, and while he remembers the best moments of his busy life in the concrete box of a solitary confinement cell, the drug river will continue to flood American cities. There will always be short ones as long as there is a demand for this poison.