The crime curriculum of Joaquín Guzmán López, the heir to the Sinaloa Cartel ‘business’

The name Joaquín Guzmán López has made headlines in the U.S. and Mexican media since his arrest on Thursday, July 25, by the U.S. authorities along with Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, the legendary leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. Little is known about Guzmán López’s life, apart from the fact he was an effective operator and one of the most feared in Mexico as well as being considered the “heir” to the cartel following the arrest of his father, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán in 2017. The U.S. State Department has reported that Guzmán López, 38, started his criminal career early and used the profits he received from his involvement in the cartel “to invest large amounts of money in the purchase of marijuana in Mexico and cocaine in Colombia.”

El Chapo’s arrest allowed his sons to move up the power ladder of the Sinaloa Cartel, which focuses on illicit activities such as cocaine and fentanyl trafficking, and is the biggest supplier of drugs to the U.S. Considered the largest in Mexico, the Sinaloa cartel operates in vast swathes of northern Mexico, wielding particular influence on the Mexico-U.S. border. And it maintains a territorial dispute with the equally violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Under the leadership of El Mayo Zambada, El Chapo’s sons have increased their power and influence in the group. Operating alongside Guzmán López are his brothers Jesús Guzmán Salazar, Iván Guzmán Salazar and, until his arrest, Ovidio Guzmán López whose notoriety was on a par with his father’s. Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested in January 2023 in an early morning raid in Culiacán, the northern city where the Sinaloa Cartel originated. It was the second attempt by Mexican authorities to arrest the drug trafficker, following a failed operation in October 2019, when he was held and released within hours due to the escalating violence sparked by his arrest. Ovidio Guzmán López was extradited to the U.S. last fall.

The U.S. authorities have not provided further information as yet on the details of the arrests. Attorney General Merrick Garland has limited himself to stating that “the Department of Justice has in its custody two alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful organizations in the world.” El Mayo Zambada and El Chapo Guzmán are considered two of Mexico’s most powerful drug traffickers and authorities on both sides of the border had made a concerted effort to hunt them down, after linking them to various crimes. The U.S. State Department has reported that “Zambada García is unique in that he has spent his entire adult life as a major international drug trafficker, but has never spent a day in jail. With the arrest, extradition, conviction, and sentencing of fellow Sinaloa Cartel faction leader Joaquin Guzmán-Loera, also known as El Chapo Guzmán, Zambada García is the undisputed top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.”

The U.S. government was offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Joaquín Guzmán López, who it had identified as “a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel.” The State Department has reported that Guzmán López plays high-level command and control roles in his own drug trafficking organization, known as the Guzmán López Transnational Criminal Organization, which operates under the umbrella of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The State Department has said that Guzmán López began his criminal activities at a very young age, “by inheriting” the connections and contacts of his late brother, Edgar Guzmán López. “After Edgar’s death, Joaquín and Ovidio inherited much of the narcotics profits and began investing large amounts of money in the purchase of marijuana in Mexico and cocaine in Colombia,” the U.S. authorities said. “They also began purchasing large quantities of ephedrine from Argentina and organized the smuggling of the product into Mexico while beginning to experiment with methamphetamine production.”

Washington believes that the Guzmán López brothers “oversee” approximately eleven methamphetamine laboratories in Sinaloa State, producing approximately 1,360 to 2,268 of kilos of methamphetamine per month. “The methamphetamine is sold wholesale to other Sinaloa members and to distributors based in the United States and Canada,” the U.S. authorities claim. The Guzmán López brothers were indicted in April 2018 for conspiracy to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, 500 grams of methamphetamine and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, according to a District of Columbia Federal Grand Jury verdict.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition