Each season is narrated in two parallel time lines
First Timeline: February 2012 – January 2016
Second Timeline: January 2001 – January 2012
Each season is narrated in two parallel time lines
First Timeline: January 2016 – January 2017
Second Timeline: 1967 – January 2001
In the middle of the on-goings of the G-20 summit, in Baja California, Mexico,Joaquín “El Chapo” GuzmánLoera travels to Los Cabos-Baja California Sur and his private airplane lands in the middle of a clandestine runway next to the golf course of a luxurious condominium. While he is there, he lives in various places of the zone, endorses and makes international trafficking agreements in a private yacht on his property as he also finalizes a delivery of money for the current Mexican presidential campaign, directly to the PRI party.
The DEA treads on EL Chapo’s heels as he is detected through their electronic surveillance in Los Cabos.There’s security folks everywhere, being a G-20 summit. The Mexican and North American authorities, in a joint operation, attempt to arrest the capo,and almost catch him in San José del Cabo through several simultaneous operations by the army and the Federal police (los federales) in which all of the properties where he has been to are raided, in the last one he manages to escape just 30 minutes before they arrive. Helped by a friend, Martin Esbalza, Joaquin finally manages to leave Los Cabos from the same airport of San José de Cabo in the middle of various soldiers and in front of the PGR airplane that is parked at the airport to take him to prison,should he be captured.
Joaquin escapes and his plane arrives at the Sinaloan coast where some of his men face the soldiers who again continue persecuting him and from there. He once again manages to escape and ascends into the occidental region of the Sierra Madre, where he hides out in the depths of an abandoned gold mine.
After escaping spectacularly from a maximum security prison in Jalisco, Mexico, Joaquin flees to Nayarit and then from there to his native Sinaloa region and before the constant harassment of the authorities begins again, he wanders throughout Mexico.
Joaquín goes through critical situations as moves around a lot during several months, but despite that, he is reunited with his mother, his wife and several of his children. On one occasion,because he is once again persecuted by the Mexican army,Joaquin is forced to leave the little house in which he was hiding and fleesto a cavern in the middle of a mountain range deep in the Sinaloan Sierra.
He wanders through various ranches in the valleys of Sinaloa and high areas of the sierra in that state and also in the neighboring state of Durango. He’s always conducting small business deal. Joaquin travels to Nayarit and then to Mexico City, Estado de México and Puebla, where receives protection and help from an important film and television actress, he is also helpedby several important politicians from the Atlacomulco group.
The USA’s DEA presses on in the meantime and leans on some non-corruptable sectors of the Mexican procurator’sgovenment office and army in order to captureEL Chapo. The capo senses a new apprehension and returns to Sinaloa.
El Licenciado(his lawyer) helps him timidly but his good friend, Ismael El MayoZambada, supports him with more conviction while his cousins, the brothers BeltránLeyva, supply him with several million dollars, pickup trucks and fire arms as he re-establishes, with much difficulty, his business dealing, new agreements and new alliances for his drug smuggling business.
Joaquin’s brother, El Pollo (the chicken), while in the Mexican capital waiting to finish a business deal, is arrested despite offering the official a juicy bribe, which is stolen by those who arrest him. He is confined in the maximum security prison in La Palma.
Before the arrest of his brother, the attacks of rival drug-lord,Osiel Cárdenas and the pressure of the authorities clouds the horizon for the capoand the madness seem to have no end.
Joaquin leaves his hiding place and moves to the valleys of his Sinaloan home state, meets with family and partners, attends his business, fells confident that everything has calmed down and so he returns to the mountains, but a secret pact between the Mexican Navy and the DEA is under way and in April they detect his location.
In a confrontation with the Mexican Navy’s soldiers, Joaquín’s Special Forces shoot down a helicopter gunship in the middle of an abyss as Joaquin manages to escape through some trails while accompanied by one of his beautiful lovers and partner, Maria and his trusted confidant, Fernando Hincapié. They remain hidden for three days in the farthest and highest of the places.
The military siege is fierce, but reinforcements arrive and they manage to evacuate the area and sneak out again, determined this time not to go to stay too long in the sierra desert.
He moves to Culiacan, where El Licensiado and his sons have facilitated a complex of upper and upper middle class residences, as well as three ranches on the periphery of the city and in which he takes refuge during a period of time.
An unexpected encounter with the emissary of an important Colombian capo called El Paisa substantially improves the life and the business panorama for Joaquin. It is the Colombian, Fernando Hincapie who visits Joaquin in Sinaloa wan offers a clear business deal.
Osiel Cárdenas Guillen, the head of the Gulf Cartel, has established an atmosphere of terror in several states, steals cargo, taxes other narcosand has attempted to assassinate Colombian delegates and operators working in the states in which he exerts influence.
The Colombian victims of Osiel, turn to Joaquin to make a proposal of alliance as they consider him serious enough and able to restrain the violent captain of Tamaulipas.
There is a synergy between Joaquin and the Colombian emissary, who connects him directly with his capo and they give Joaquin a helicopter, which has several hundred kilos of cocaine which they already have in Mexico and so Joaquin begins to grow his drug trafficking business.
They enable several air and sea routes and flood cocaine in to Mexico and also begin to smuggle it towards the USA under different, novel and new mechanisms.
It is with the help of the Colombians that the capo ostensibly regains his power and establishes a well thought out master plan, which has been gestating since his years in prison.
At the end of November he finds himself in Cancun with the Colombian capo, “El Paisa”. They strengthen their alliance and fundamentally the Colombian gives his endorsement for what, in two weeks, somewhere in Mexico, Joaquin starts the process of becoming the drug-smuggling power legend known as “El Chapo”.
On May 1, 2012 Russian Mafia delegates coming from Canada meet personally with Joaquin and want to deal directly with him and become partners to supply the growing Slavic market. One kilo of cocaine in the Russian Federation is worth three times more than in the USA and Joaquín agrees to work with them. In his particular style he resolves a doubt about the quality of his merchandise that one of the Russian delegates questions. The Ruskie is surprised by the dramatic manner in which the capo responds. The day after the Russians leave and Martin clarifies to his boss that the Russian questioner was a direct relative of one of the Kremlin’s chiefs. May is a rough and busy month for the capo, on the 12th, the PRI party emissaries ask him and Joaquin’s partners for money, as it appears that they are not being favorably seen in the polls so they need some ”extra help”. The Sinaloan bosses agree to help the failing PRI Mexican political party.
Coming from different places of the Republic, the most important drug smuggling lords of the Mexican Pacific, arrive in Sonora and meet at the ranch of an important PRI politician. They come from;Michoacan, Jalisco, Baja California, Durango, Colima, Nayarit and Sinaloa.Joaquín has summoned these top Mexican drug-lords to a summit and as it was quite recent that the September 11 terrorist attacks with airplanes bringing down the twin towers, the Pentagon, etc had happened, things were about to change drastically in their business vis-à-vis air travel and security. This summit was also an opportunity for El Chapo to create something special,which he had dreamt about and had also been harboring from his days in prison. The agenda was to create the most important organization, with the most skilled sellers, the best transport infrastructure, the best passers (smugglers), the best bribers, the most warriors and with all the capos there, joined together on the initiative of the recently escaped capo, El Chapo,it was being laid out for them to form an alliance of sorts.
They united their efforts in the creation of a confederation that would optimize their strengths. The empirewould control a greater number of territories and would make its activities more efficient and powerful. On the rival side is Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, leader of the Gulf Cartel and his new armedfaction, the fearsome Zetas. The powerful and immense Pacific Confederation is born in the midst of a new geopolitical war with the USA and its allies.
Its most outstanding leaders are, JoaquínEl Chapo, El MayoZambada and King Zambada, Nacho Coronel, El Viceroy Carrillo Fuentes, the BeltránLeyva brothers and Los HermanosValencia, El Ojón Ladino of the Amezcua clan, and Juan José Esparragoza-El Azul.
Joaquín’s natural leadership is established in the new mega-cartel and he knows that his puzzle is in intact for the moment and that the backing of the Colombians is crucial to his success.
In February 2002, one of the capo’s greatest enemies, Ramón Arellano Felix, is murdered. This happens in Mazatlán, in full carnival while Ramón was hunting for El Mayo and Joaquín. He was shot in the middle of a sidewalk by Sinaloa;s state police officers. Constant clashes between Osiel and the Zetas happen daily.
Joaquin has personal encounters and concludes great business deals with the Colombian caposlos Mellizos Mejía Munera (the twins) as well as alliances with the Guatemalan capo Otto Herrera. El Paisa gives him a jet filled with cocaine and Joaquin’s Argentine friend, Fernando Hincapié, consolidates air and sea routes from Colombia, Panama and Ecuador and also use transits to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.
On March 14, 2003, Osiel Cardenas Guillen is detained in Tamaulipas by a brilliant Mexican army captain who leads the operation. Later on, this captain becomes the military chief of the presidential house and after years of working there he joins Joaquin’s group.
A son of his named IvánArchivaldo, who lives in Guadalajara is involved in a murder case of a young Canadian citizen and her Mexican companion. At the same time Joaquin’s group aggressively resume the digging and construction of tunnels on the border through which passes immense amounts of cocaine.
A team of Joaquin’s travels to Peru and business goes very well there. The capo has managed to establish a network of support and important allies, from the port of Callao as large quantities of cocaine emerge towards Central America and also south to Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil, which is then re-directed towards Mexico, Canada, Europe and Asia. Officials and authorities from several countries in the Americas, Africa and Europe are involved in coordinating the routes.
One plan devised by El Chapo’s staff proposes that Joaquin travel to the Inca country and establish himself there for an indeterminate amount of time. In June there is an operation against Joaquín, a ranch in the outskirts of Culiacán is raided, where he had left three hours prior.Joaquin’s young lover and partner is left behind and a Mexican army general, obsessed with the beautiful woman, attempts to abuse her, but one of his subordinates prevents him and finally they find nothing in the place and the girl is released.
In July the PRI wins the elections (thanks to El Chapo’s monetary contributions) and in August the economic demands of the PRI emissaries continue, this time the capo hears the siren songs of these government officials regarding the future that looms with the new government, etc. Joaquin adjusts the pegs and demands to reach a concrete agreement as the reasons go and reasons come with tens of millions of dollars flowing in which continues the pact and relationship the PRI has with the capo.
Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes-El Niño de Oro, the brother of El Viceroy, another capo, is murdered in a commercial center in Culiacan.El Viceroy accuses Joaquin and El Mayo of the death of his brother, and for the first time the Confederation is fractured for the first time and the Carrillo Fuentes family approach the Zetas.
El CejaGüera, a friend and associate of Joaquín.is murdered in prison, an alliance between Osiel Cárdenas (also in prison) and Los Carrillo Fuentesgives fruit and a second and fatal retaliation ensues, as Joaquin’s brother,El Pollo, is assassinated in prison on December 31 2004.Joaquín’s younger brother is shot down in the bathrooms of the prison.
Half a year later, another brother of Joaquín, known as El Mudo, is arrested in Culiacan. His son, IvánArchivaldo is also arrested for the case of the young Canadian woman killed outside a nightclub in Guadalajara.
Dozens of Joaquin’s delegates establish alliances and operations throughout central and South America. But as a result of facts presented in Sonora, there begins a succession of events that generate friction between Joaquín and his cousins the BeltránLeyva Brothers.
Joaquin and El Mayo, in a double game, exert actions dealing with punishment but do not confront the Beltran Layva clan directly. They invade the European market in alliance with Colombians, using Cancun as a transit base for the shipment of cocaine to several countries of the continent. Fernando Hincapié, Joaquin’s friend and confidantsupports and advises then with that stage of expansion.
Martin Esbalza, a brilliant Mexican-Argentinian professional, who is linked to Joaquín forms a working team that includes chemists, engineers and other professionals who implement a mega expansion project through the direct production of synthetic drugs, mainly ICE. They optimize the production of cocaine and marijuana with new methods of cultivation firstly, then processing methods during the second phase.
They install dozens of synthetic drug laboratories in the sierras of Sinaloa, Durango and Sonora, and begin to import cocaine as re-oxidized bases and process them in their own laboratories, converting it into hydrochloride.
The Sierra is a permanent hiding place and base of operations for Joaquin’s empire, where they build a great network of supports and where they also initiate the expansion of a monumental military force that protects and accompanies the business.
Their advanced military presence in several Mexican states is fiercely disputed and squared off with the Zetas as well as other rival, thus enemy factions.
Sometimes Joaquin moves to other key areas of the Republic, especially to Cancun. He also travels to the Dominican Republic in the company of Fernando Hincapié, where he has a summit with a delegate of Daniel “El Loco” Barrera, who claims that the cocaine El Chapo ships from Venezuela to Central America is of poor quality.
Fernando Hincapiéhas an airline accident, whilecarrying tens of millions of dollars, weapons, communications equipment, together with 8 trustworthy men who were accompanying him to Peru to finalize the conditions for Joaquín to settle there.
This setback leaves Joaquin again without one of his best supports. The DEA and the FBI, through satellite tracking equipment, detect movements by the capo and establish priorities to transfer their best men to Culiacán.
During the second half of 2006, in the region of Ranchería Angostura, Canelas-Durango, he meets the beautiful young Emma Coronel Aispuro and supports her in her efforts to become a beauty queen in the competition of the Regional Fair of the Guayava (guava) and coffee. Later on in 2007 he forms a steady relationship with her and takes over a complete village to entertain his girlfriend-queen.
In the first half of 2007, El Paisa is assassinated and Joaquin’s operations suffer a severe setback. Joaquín, the womanizer, is trapped in the middle of the desert mountain for a while and visits another very young woman, different from Emma, but later on that year, in July, he marries Emma in Canelas, Durango.
Fernando Hincapié advises El Chapo on his investments and puts him in contact with several European and Canadian mafias. At the same time Joaquín consolidates the presence of his organization in several North American cities, especially in California, Arizona and in Chicago, Illinois.
He establishes alliances with several gangs within the North American continent, with a variety including Latino gangs and Italian and Irish families in Toronto and New York.
Fernando Hincapié comes up with a long-term business plan and amongst other deals, he focuses on the Beijing Olympics coming up and the needs of the Chinese mafias requiring merchandise for that budding market.
Chinese bosses visit El Chapo directly and travel from Hong Kong and Shanghai to make a deal. Joaquin establishes a route that generates millions of dollars and supplies that market with ample growth and that, in addition to the unique event also attracts thousands of tourists.
The Colombian,Fernando Hincapié, travels with Martin Esbalza to Hong Kong. It is Martin who takes care of all the contacts and details of the operation and in exchange they receive part of payment from the Chinese as large quantities of chemical products necessary for the production of synthetic drugs processed in their laboratories in the Sinaloan sierra.
Meanwhile, in the Chinese capital of Beiijing, cocaine floods into the city, compliments of the deals made by El Chapo and its international team.
Enrique Peña Nieto becomes president of Mexico and a week later,Joaquin’s delegates deliver the first batch of money to the partythat is now in power in Mexico.
In the middle of a posada (a very Mexican pre-Christmas celebration of Spanish origin which takes place in December) organized by Katty the publicist, there are celebrations, toasts and promises made by the politicians towards thecapo’sorganization. The emissaries, in this occasion, offer them gold and heaven on earth.Katty uses her charms to flirt with the emissaries of the capo in the luxurious pent-house in the capital city of Mexico, which serves as their headquarters for the delivery of boxes and boxes of cash. The millions coming from the capo’s organization are then taken to the underground parking of the building in a small van, thentransferred to three vans with dark-tinted windows that are used to deliver the millions towards the heartof the Mexican government.
Martin Esbalza returns to Culiacán and supports Joaquin on several fronts. The presence of Emma becomes more frequent in the life of Joaquin as their twins become a major priority in his life. Martin then leaves for Russia in the dead of the winter and after goes through England where he meets with a great Russian entrepreneur who is a shareholder of several first division futbol (soccer) teams. The Russkie is responsible for taking the money from Russia and delivers it where Martin instructs him. This also includes a part payment in diamonds, to be collected in St. Petersburg and delivered in person to the son of the prominent Russian politician.
While celebrating his birthday, El Mochomo, one of the Beltran Leyva brothers is captured in Culiacan. The Beltrans ask Joaquin and El Mayo for their help to release ElMochomo, but there is no rescue and they do not manage to negotiate a bribe for the authorities. This leaves a bitter taste in the other Beltran Leyva’s brothers and they read it as El Chapo’s&El Mayo’s lack of solidarity with their family.
In April of the same year Joaquin’s son, IvánArchivaldo regains his freedom from prison. His freedom and the suspicions that it causes, triggers a war inside the capo’s confederation.
The Beltran Leyva brothers feel betrayed by Joaquin and El Mayo so Arturo Beltrán-El Barbas, declares war on them and a succession of violent acts is unleashed as a brutal war throughout Sinaloa begins. Aggressions come and go.
While Martin Esbalza travels through Europe, Asia and Canada, he meets the brother of Amira, his Canadian girlfriend of Lebanese origin. Amira’s brother is colonel surnamed Bader with whom Martin initiates drug trafficking activities and who shows interest in having direct contact with Joaquin, which he expresses to his “brother-in-law”. In the midst of the drug-lord war in Mexico, Joaquin does immense deals with Israeli arms dealers and also acquires weapons in the Middle East.
The Italian families of Toronto are in a rearrangement and the most powerful sector of them, the “Rizzuto Clan” approaches Joaquín and offer him excellent conditions to use Canada as a bridge from the return to several points in Europe and Asia. They personally travel to Sinaloa to see Joaquin with Martin is the go-between and the one who makes the meeting possible. The meeting is brief but fruitful and one of the Italian delegates falls in Joaquin’s favor and considers him as a charismatic, elegant and a friendly person.
The war between the drug-lords in Mexico reaches its highest peak when one of Joaquin’s son, Edgar is murdered together with the son of a financial operator of the El MayoZambada clan. Rifle bullets and even a shot from a bazuca from the assassins ends the lives of the young men in aCuliacánparking lot.
The reprisals do not wait, those responsible are executed one by one on a track in the middle of the mountains where they are taken by plane after being captured in a raiding operation executed by Sinaloan men sent by Joaquin and El Mayo. One of the young men’s mother, Griselda, goes up to the mountains to complain to Joaquin and question the absurdity of the war they were waging.
The Beltránsrebel so the authorities arrested one of Joaquin’s cousin and a nephew of his. Faced with so much violence, the government implements the Culiacán-Navolato operation, with a deployment of thousands of soldiers, sailors and federal police, including jeeps, trucks, tanks, helicopters and spy planes covering Sinaloa and neighboring states.
Culiacan becomes a ghost town as fear seizes everyone, shops close early, nightlife disappears from the city, roads are full of police and military checkpoints, airports and land terminals and tickets to hotels are militarized, the DEA installs an operations headquarter in the city bringing FBI agents and other agencies who arrive in the city and neighboring Mazatlan.
An exodus of dozens of the capos’ women, children, adolescents, and family elders of the upper middle-class leaders and leaders in contention begins, the destination is Vancouver-Canada and ironically many stay in the same hotels, go to the same malls and wander the same path so they keep bumping into each other awkwardly. Most of the time the women know each other and even have family ties and after all, they have been comadres or friends and now, having part of the federation fractured, their husbands, parents, children or brothers have become staunch enemies. There’s no business like the drug business to wreak havoc on behalf of the participating families. The women talk and help each other and feel a certain kindred spirit because they are victims of the same war.Arturo Beltrán, the oldest of the brothers who also successfully and excessively traffics drugs, supplies them with the same Colombian cocaine from the same source as their group traffics – directly from the Colombians.
The fortunes some grow vastly and most of them are invested in men, weapons, automobiles, communications equipment, bribes, security houses, aircraft, all in the service of one current war.
From one moment to the next, Mexico City is crowded with Colombians, Central Americans as well as operators from other Latin American and European countries that establish themselvesin the capital to develop their activities of supervising and controllingdrug-trafficking with all sides.
The most luxurious colonies host the “new entrepreneurs” who from nowhere purchase luxurious cars, apartments and residences. Medium and small cities like Cuernavaca, Valle de Bravo, Malinalco, Guanajuato, all become refuges for members of one of the various bands of wealthy rogues, who drug-traffic nationally and internationally.
Arturo Beltrán-El Barbas is emboldened with his power and blinded he turns to hallucinogens, witches, fortune-tellers and santeros(holy men). It is rumored that he consumes human flesh in a Mexican soup, known as pozole as he believes he will gain power by eating parts of his enemies. He also forces his lieutenants to do the same.
The delays,in one or another movement regarding matters of property, goods and/or money, especiallyregarding cash amounts from their enemies, allow for the authorities to make meaningfulbusts as they make large seizures of drugs and money. Corruption is however rampantso before announcing the amounts of cash and drug quantities officially, the federal police, the chiefs of the sub-prosecutors and other agenciesusually steal or hide part of the confiscated loot and distribute it on several levels, even with some foreign agents. It appears that everyone is on the takebecause of the benefits they can reap from millions not declared legally in the system.
Often un-related drug seizures are resold to the opposite side. The drug traffic business continues as large amounts of armaments from California and Arizona are also passed through the border to supply the armies of Joaquin and those of his rivals as well. The North American weapons business is booming. The arias and ex-military bands of Latin origin are their biggest suppliers. Weapons are also used to pay for merchandise in exchange for cocaine, marijuana and synthetic drugs.
In the middle of all ofthis chaos, in November 2008, an airplane carrying the Secretary of the Interior, Mouriño, crash lands in the Mexican capital. The authorities allude to human errors and technical failures but a mantle of doubt and many rumors remain in the air, notably that the hand of drug trafficking could have been behind the fatal accident.
he new (old) Mexican political party (PRI), is given 24 USD million dollars by Joaquin. The PRI’s emissaries pick up this sum, which is an advance against the total agreed-upon sum of more than two hundred million dollars, which El Chapo and his partners will give them over a and for things to go smoothly.
During those days, Martín Esbalza, Joaquin’s business confidant, with the help of the Ecuadorian military, retrieves money and cocaine that another retired ex-military Ecuadorian, major Lucio and past associate of Joaquin, has stolen from the organization.
An active faction of the Ecuadorian military, accompanied by a Mexican delegate of the capo, kidnaps Lucio. A Colombian emissary sent by Martín Esbalza helps them by deceiving Major Lucio and inviting him to lunch to talk about a possible business transaction and there he puts it to the commander and takes him out of the luxurious restaurant as dozens of diners look on.
After Lucio is beat up and tortured he is forced to return the money, merchandise and is also forced to transfer any property and automobiles acquired, in order to complete the full amount he stole. They forgive his life, but he is later handed over to the Ecuadorian authorities and charged with drug trafficking and also on a previous evasion.
The report on the rescue regarding Joaquin is prepared by the LicensiadoDamaso, who claims it as his own action through the delegate at the Ecuadorian military. He minimizes the role of Martin Esbalza (as he had done in many past occasions), because his involvementwould clearly be a fissure in the dome of Joaquin’s “empire”, along with the jealousies, envies and multiple friction within the roles among and between several of them.
A summit is attempted in order to make peace between the two fighting factions, but Joaquin and El Mayo discover that Arturo Beltran’splan’s sole purpose was to hand them over to the Mexican authorities. The summit finally aborts and the war is intensified.
The American and even some European agencies claim the Mexican government and their police cannot be trusted and that their investigation procedures are not effective. The DEA and the FBI consider themselves mocked so they initiate a direct approach with only certain sectors of the Mexican army and strengthen their ties with the navy. Mexican army and navy operations are increasingly present in the sierra, and Joaquin knows that he must move frequently.
In October a Lebanese colonel named Bader, emissary of Al Qaeda contacts El Chapo through Martín Esbalza and visits him in the mountains. He proposes to work with Joaquin’s group in exchange for certain favors but Joaquin rejects the proposal. One of the Comba brothers visits Joaquin in one of his camps and they expand the business agreement which they already have.
El Chapo receives large shipments of Colombian cocaine sent via the Pacific Ocean through customized submarines by Los Rastrojos (the Colombian cartel led by the Comba Brothers).
Mexico is flooded with cocaine and as Joaquin and his associates pass it expeditiously to the United States, many cities such as Guadalajara’s capital, Monterrey, as well as other large Mexican cities become attractive and budding markets for local consumption as much of the cocaine that local traffickers control stays in Mexico to supply domestic consumption. This new network of medium traffic and micro-traffic dealers sow violence and create chaos to the business by posing a rearrangement of forces and blocks of power and corruption, that are expressed in an out of control diaspora of different players.
The war that the Mexican presidency declares to the narco-trafficants is a total failure; the country is flooded with the blood of tens of thousands of people who die in this conflict. There is a proliferation of cartels, organizations and structures, some of which take sides with Joaquin, El Mayoand Nacho Coronel as others go with Los BeltránLeyvabrothers and Los Zetas. Betrayal comes, goes and goes around as within swinging doors.
The market for synthetic drugs is in exponential growth mode and Joaquin and his partners understand that so in a second stage of more aggressive production, Joaquin establishes his general command center in the middle of the sierra where his army grows day by day. There are already hundreds who wear military uniforms and thousands more who watch over their safety and that of their operations throughout several states in Mexico.
Several mega laboratories are built in the mountains, one of them remotely in the trenches, has an immense production capability with the best technology and infrastructure. Barracks to house and feed hundreds of men are employed for this ever-growing army.
Trucks and armored trucks are customized and painted green and blue colors, reinforced and with lethal artillery that are weapons of war. They have four-wheelers, vans, thousands of rifles and hundreds of spear grenades, modern communications equipment and everything is more or less the order of the day.
Joaquín’s men exercise authority and the special forces within their ranks hunt car thieves, extortionists and kidnappers whom they give away or deliver, tied up, to the authorities, leaving them in front of their official offices or places of official work.
They even rescue the daughter of an important businessman to whom they return their daughter safe and sound, releasing all of the captors to the authorities and asking nothing in return to her father, other than his friendship.
Joaquin’s business in the USA expands and consolidates. Alliances with Latino and arias gangs are expanded and solidified.
At the hacienda of Joaquin’s nephew, Alfredo BeltránGuzmán-El Mochomit, several bosses celebrate the old capo Rafael Caro Quintero, who has regained his freedom a few weeks earlier. They give him men, cars, money and weapons. Attendees present include;Joaquín, El Mayo, El LicenciadoDamaso, Martin Esbalza, two of Joaquin’s childrenand the host. In the middle of the partyJoaquín receives news and photos taken of him from previous days by DEA agents and the Mexican navy special agents.
Accurate reports of intelligence on Joaquín’s location rest with SEIDO and the atmosphere becomestense as his own men and his allies hint and indicate in several ways for him step aside, as it would appear that Joaquin’s fate has been cast.
A nephew of the capo and son of one of the BeltránLeyva brothers, El Mochomito, who after the death of his uncle made a peace pact with Joaquin and seems to have sealed the bloody chapter between the families.
It seems that the DEA had been fueling this reconciliation from a secret agreement with the father of the young Beltrán brother and from which both parties would both ultimately benefit.
Jointly initiated and massive drug trafficking activities by members from both clans results and as Joaquín’s children take on more important roles within the organization, Joaquín becomes more urban and transmits his knowledge of the business to his heirs while hiding out. In the meantime,Joaquin deals with the death of Fernando, El LicenciadoDamaso, and it increases his power once again within the organization.He controls the flow of cocaine from South America and continues his smugglingactivities in to the United States.
El Licensiado’s son, Dámaso Jr. is his most outgoing student and, like Joaquin’s other children, he becomes enthusiastic about the activities of the organization.
The son of El Nacho Coronel is kidnapped and murdered by the Beltran Leyva Brothers cartel in Nayarit. The men of El Nacho and El Chapo kidnap a wife of one of the Beltran brothers, but they forgive her life and insist that the family clan should respect and not involve family members.
In August of 2009 the mega laboratory in the Las Trancas ranch in Tamazula, Durango is raided and destroyed by the Mexican army. The authorities did not expect to find anything of this magnitude, including the military camps housing one hundred of Joaquin’s men and a house where Joaquin could be near and next to his collaborators to continue to developed their ample drug trafficking activity.
Joaquin had been warned by infiltrators in the National Secretary of defense and managed to flee a couple of hours earlier with the use of several trucks and ATVs. He left everything behind and abandoned the place with what he was wearing, always with his gun and his rifle.
Don Juan and the Insulza brothers are key to evacuation, as they and Joaquin wander through the mountains and dirt roads for 9 days. The population throughout the regionthey cross, supportthem. They have friends and compadreseverywhere in that mountain region and that allows them to sneak away and evaporate from his persecutor’s grasp.
In December 2009, a product of information provided by Joaquin had convinced La Barbie (chief of assassins and middle-high ranking hand in the confederation, who had taken sides with the Beltran Leyva brothers) to return to his fold and pactsa peace with Joaquin. Fed up with Barbas’ outrages and disobedience, which also affects his meteoric rise in business, he supplies to Joaquin’s military chief, El Capitan with the exact location of the where-about, who in turn passes it on to his contacts withinMexico’s Secretary of the Navy. After a confrontation with rifle bullets flying all over and long-range weapons blasting, Arturo BeltránLeyva is shot down, his bloody body is upholstered with US dollars and photographed for the press.
Joaquin begins to win the war against his former partners. In the same city, Cuernavaca, where he was beaten, his former allies, having betrayed him, celebrate in a two-day party with beautiful models, actresses and TV presenters attending.
For some time La Barbie and his partners show up, back in the drug trade and thanks to their betrayal, Joaquin will turn a blind eye to his “friend-enemies”.They will be “the flower of the day” as capos, and eventually fall into hands of the authorities and others will be discharged.
Amid the uncertainty caused by the reports and photos that corrupt officials had sent to Joaquin through his attorneys and who raised the exact knowledge to the authorities of his location, the capo moves to the outskirts of Culiacan in the state of Leopoldo Sánchez Celis-Angostura and builds a luxurious ranch with spacious social spaces, a swimming pool and chalets, with the characteristics that it is almost impossible to see from the air and appears like a modest ranch from the outside.It has two access routes and is close to the sea. Joaquin lives in a part of a complex network of houses in Culiacán where he takes refuge. He has also enabled 5 ranches near the city for the same purpose, the most luxurious being that belonging to an associate of his, Leopoldo Sánchez Celis. The other four ranches also have excellent conditions and they are remodeled as large caves where they store cocaine, ice, weapons, communications equipment and money.
Two of the houses were set up as laboratories that processed synthetic drugs and also obtained cocaine hydrochloride from the re-oxidized coca base, which was imported from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. All of the ranches are within minutes of airstrips arranged with aircraft standing by to evacuate the capo to the mountains or other places to hide at a moment’s notice.
Soon enough however, Joaquin suffers many setbacks, and although the business had grown and expanded, the human losses of El Capi, Don Juan, Fernando Hincapié and the continued harassment from the navy soldiers in the mountains as well as several arrests of people close to him get on his nerves and tires out Joaquin. Martin Esbalza calls him “locochon” (crazy one) for chosing to live in an urban way, enchanted and enjoying the presence of his twins and sharing as much time with Emma while putting them all at risk. Martin has advised him to live in the mountains instead but Joaquin decides to stay and enjoy the pool and play with his little twins and his wife Emma. He is also able to control and supervisethe businesses and continues to look for future alternatives after going through the wars and persecutions of not long ago.
Joaquin feels nervous by the security reports he receives and he also begins to have some frictions with Martin Esbalza.His distrust towards some people around him increases. Some members of his near group seemingly go against him and their inner circle appears to be compromisedwith communications infiltrations. They are intensely monitored via satellite and with modern equipment of interception by the different Mexican agencies, and the marine in coordination with the DEA, FBI and even Scotland Yard.
Part of the trap that is being laid for the capo has to do with the reception and analyzing of certain routines and customs that he has and with patience and rigor, the authoritative hounds analyze everything that seems useful. For example, when Joaquin lunches, dines or orders for Chinese food or sushi, as he is a fanatic of Asian cuisine or when his men’s orders of hamburgers, pizza and/ortacos are of unusual quantities to carry, or purchases of several BlackBerries or tablets in one place and all at once, they take notice and keep track. Or renting or buying two dozen movies on DVD and Blu-ray or huge shopping sprees that include goods with certain constants also turn on the alarms. Despite having an immense sympathy with the inhabitants of the Sinaloa capital and as there have been times when the large sums of money and the generous tips silenced the merchants of the city, it is true nevertheless that even many businesses are owned by relatives, friends and front men, seeded infiltrators in different roles and commercial and labor activities in the area blow the whistle. It may be for him or not, but sincenarcosabound in that areayou have to keep and eye open and alsotrack of the buyers so business is done.
The instructions that the heads of security give to the subordinates are not always completely fulfilled, for they get lazy and some of them relax too much when they make their purchases in the same place, become too friendly with waitresses or tellers and in their idiosyncratic behavior they become excessively loquacious. Also when they manage several cell phones and also carry their personal ones in which they talk to their partners and lovers without the slightest level of discretion it raises eyebrows and the word gets out.
Joaquín happens to have a fine-tuned and disciplined militia men in his organization but partially surrounds himself with young inexperienced as well as some mature men, who do their own small and medium-sized business deals, behind their boss’ back. This eventually generates cracks in the safety of El Chapo’s organization.
At the end of September one of the trusted men of El Mayo and Joaquin and one who leads an armed and security structure of the organization, known as El Chino Anthrax, receives valuable information regarding a historic enemy of the two capos who will celebrate his birthday on the 18th of the month. A place has already been determined in Los Cabos-Baja California Sur.
There is a plan formulating inside of El Chino Anthrax’s head that effectively comes to fruition the day indicated, this man who is characterized by being bloodthirsty and effective, executes with one of his commanders an operative in a reception hall of the luxurious Marbella Hotel. More than a hundred guests attend with a famous singer filling the venue and the best mariachi in the city enlivens the evening. The guest singer is the former vocalist of the famous Mexican band El Recodo, winner of several Latin grammys. Inside the party the guests include politicians, businessmen, artists, celebrities, family members and even a famous former soccer player of a senior team.
A clown who is part of the group of entertainers hired for the party crosses the hall and receives a message from a man on the opposite side of him, but on his other hand he dials a cell phone and makes a sign and too quickly approaches a table where the host, Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix has moved in order to dismiss some guests, the clown tackles him, yells and shoots him one time, then five more shots and flees the place. The commotion is total. The revenge for the death of El Pollo (The Chicken) had been delayed, but is executed now as ordered.
Several delegates of Joaquín travel to Venezuela, establish contacts with Colombian gangs located in that country that, under the protection of corrupt authorities, establish maritime and air routes and where they have their supply set up with merchandise for the guerrilla of the FARC (in Colombia) and the EPL strongholds.
In February, someone from the infamous Japanese gang, the Yakuza, visits him in the Sierra. Joaquín implements a very curious route, involving venerable North American elders and other nationalities and from their mobile-homessmuggle cocaine into the USA, and once in the US, the tentacles of the Japanese allow them to send it in large quantities to the ports of Nagoya and Yokohama. This widens Joaquin’s links with several Asian and European mafias, as his empire grows further globally.
A nephew of the capo and son of one of the BeltránLeyva, El Mochomito, makes a peace pact with Joaquin, seemingly to seal the bloody chapter between the families. It also appears that the DEA has fueled this reconciliation from a secret agreement with the father of the young Beltrán and from which both parties seek to benefit. They jointly initiate more traffic activities by members of both clans.
Joaquín’s children take on more important roles within the organization andJoaquín becomes more urban and transmits his knowledge of the business to his heirs from afar, while dealing with the death of his confidant, Fernando, LicenciadoDamaso. This increases his power within the organization as he takes direct and firm control of the cocaine business coming from South America and continues smuggling it into the United States.El Licenciado’s son, Dámaso Jr. is his most outgoing student and, like Joaquin’s children, he becomes enthusiastic about the activities of the organization.
Fernando Hincapié supports Joaquin in the reengineering of merchandise supplies coming from South America. In less than six months the empire had suffered three major setbacks losing 26 tons of cocaine, so with this new Colombian deal it implements several routes by air and sea, some very new and with impeccable facades and innovative mechanisms.
Everything is going well, the war is in Joaquin’s favor, when on July 29, 2010 Nacho Coronel dies in a confrontation in Zapopan, Jalisco. This is a blow that affects Joaquín in the soul, because El Nacho was his true friend and this also puts in jeopardy their presence in Guadalajara, a place almost impossible to handle for the confederation without a local trusted boss such as Nacho was.
Joaquín relies on the Licensiado for all of his Mexican domestic affairs, while Fernando Hincapié and Martin Esbalza are his eyes and power abroad indealing within the multinational relations part of the global business.
To cool off El Chino Anthrax (The duplicitous capo nicknamed “Anthrax Chinese”), they send him to South America. He makes a long journey passing through Lima, Peru where he checks and verifies the development of an operation that is under way to send a huge cargo by sea to Europe. After Peru, he goes to Ecuador and moves to the border, then into the jungle to supervise a zone controlled by the FARC (the Colombian guerilla faction) and where tons of re-oxidized coca base is shipped shortly to Mexico in boats that are refueled throughout the Pacific coast line.
Afterwards he returns to Peru, and from there he reports to Joaquin’s two sons, who are involved and directly control several operations of the organization. He then receives the order to travel to Venezuela, where there awaits him two compatriots of his who have just arrived with one million dollars.In Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city, he meets with the other emissaries of his country, one of whom has excellent relationships with senior Venezuelan soldiers with whom they have been working for some years in a curious chain of trafficking, involving; Colombian guerrillas, criminal bands (former paramilitaries), corrupt Venezuelan authorities and the other characters and associates of El Chapo’s confederation.
NicolásMaduro, the Venezuelan left wing candidate hadwon the presidential elections six months prior and the mission of El Chino Anthrax not only included strengthening and supervising the traffic business that Joaquín had already implemented there, but to also consider, in Venezuela, an adequate shelter option for the capo. To that end, part of the money is given, as a bribe, to a general of Venezuela’s National Guard for that purpose, which makes the military a little nervous. But they take the money anyway. During the previous month in Paris the authorities had confiscated 31 suitcases in an Air France flight containing a total of 1.4 tons of cocaine. The airplane had come from the airport of Maiquetía, Venezuela so they are warned that they must let things cool down for a few weeks before carrying out any new smuggling activities.
The international narcotics centers have their sights on the Bolivarian Republic and its authorities for presumed complicity, so it does not want to secure any new agreements until the beginning of the following year.It receives the millionaire bribe willingly nevertheless and finally agree that one of Joaquin’s sons travel in early December to settle some aspects. Barinas is the Venezuelan state chosen for the permanence of the Mexicans in its territory.
El Chino Ántraxreturns to Mexico and reports his activities to the capo. He remains there for two weeks while preparing a new displacement. His next mission is to accompany Joaquin’s son back to Venezuela, acquire some properties and install some of his men as advanced for Joaquin’s arrival in the first half of 2014.
He does this and travels next to one of Joaquín’s heirs back to Venezuela where they acquire two estates in Barinas and another in Apure as well as a luxurious house in Varela and another in Mérida. The young Guzmán Hernández and El Chino Anthrax make an exhaustive research of all the real estate and the areas where they are located, meet with Venezuelan military, members of Colombian criminal gangs who traffic with their respective fathers and reside on the border. They also do business with Venezuelan drug-lords who have been supporting them logistically for some years.Guzmán Hernández travels back to Mexico in order to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays with his father and other family members, while the El Chino Anthrax is accompanied by two assistants with various tasks entrusted to them.
El Chino Ántraxadditionally leases several apartments in the two cities, acquiring half a dozen pickup trucks, one sedan type of car, several motorcycles, a couple of jeeps, armaments & ammunition and communications equipment.
Under the supervision of Joaquin’s son and associates, he begins fixing up the properties and buys furniture and fixtures for them.He also must build a solid security scheme for his boss, strengthen support and has a faction of the Colombian guerrilla force and the Venezuelan military as key helpers for this.
But not everything is work, the capo’s chosen man in Venezuela also has fun, organizes several parties, love Colombian women and through a Colombian operator invites several Colombian models to accompany him some of the days.
But the Mexican army and navy as well as the North American agencies do not give him any rest and between August of 2010 and May of 2011 suffers several defeats in the Sierra Madre. During that same month Osama Bin Laden is slaughtered in Pakistan, and Joaquin leads to the list of the 10 most wanted men on the FBI list.
In August 2011, after the intense persecution to which they are subjected to by the Mexican navy and the army, Don Juan Gutiérrez becomes sick of pneumonia and dies in a hospital in Badiraguato. The commander is buried in La Tuna.Joaquin is emotionally affected and his morale is defeated as his friend and counselor will no longer accompany him. This becomes a definitive factor and a turning point, which will affect the future of the capo. On August 11, at the Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, south of Los Angeles, California, USA, Emma gives birth to a pair of twins and the joy of Joaquin is immense.
When El Chino Anthrax is notified that he must spend Christmas in Venezuela, he decides to invite his girlfriend and a couple of friends directly from Culiacan. Two of the girls do not have passports so they process them quickly in the capital of Sinaloa and buy air tickets with the itinerary Culiacán -City of Mexico-Caracas, Venezuela.
The young women board the flight and, in the face of such obviousness, airport officials are suspicious, take note of the three women and notify the authorities. This time the DEA is the first to know and quickly trigger a follow-up mechanism even though the US agency does not have an official presence in Venezuela. The whole operation includes interception of the girls’ cell phones. The girls do not take any security measures and use them for communication with relatives and with El Chino Anthrax, who receives them joyfully and spends several days with them, together with his lieutenants.They rent a luxurious villa on the beaches of Chirivi, an action that is not gratuitous.Joaquín’s man takes advantage of the proximity of the tourist place with PuntoFijo in Coro, a port from where two tons of cocaine are dispatched to the Dutch port of Rotterdam and whose final destination is Great Britain.
What follows is a race against time for the DEA, where behind the backs of Venezuelan and Mexican officials, Mexican communications are intercepted and photographs and fingerprints are taken, valuable information, that when collated in the USA and Mexico, throws them the true identity of the EL Chino Anthrax, and not the one of the passport with which he hasentered Venezuela. This goes against him and already there is an order of capture in force with a “red alert”including that of the Interpol.
After his announced fall, the DEA does not trust the Venezuelan authorities and expects the Mexican to leave that country to activate the Interpol circular. On December 27th EL Chino Anthrax sends back to Culiacan his beautiful girlfriend and the other two young ladies and prepares to board a flight to Amsterdam on 31 December. When boarding the plane, two DEA agents board with him and they discreetly hope the capo steps on European soil.
Arriving at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and going through migration everything is ready. The Dutch police have already been notified and apprehend El Chino Anthrax, interrogate him and check his false document. At that time the Dutch simultaneously notify the Mexican and North American authorities of the apprehension of the Chinese Anthrax Mexican drug-dealer. The Mexican diplomats are accustomed to abandoning their diplomatic headquarters for the holidays and that counts in favor of the DEA. Aréchiga, the real name of the Mexican capo, is taken to a place of seclusion where he is interrogated not only by the Dutch anti-narcotics police and Scotland Yard (directly affected by the end destination of the cocaine shipped) takes advantage of the Europol agreements and joins the DEA in order to take advantage andinform themselves better.Aréchiga is not silent, is bent and begins to sing.
In the meantime, Joaquin and his group are relaxed and thinking that the lack of communication with their delegate is because he is taking advantage of the dates to rest since the shipment will take a few days to arrive in Europe. They do not suspect that El Chino Anthrax has been arrested, and that the damage is already done as Arechiga talks about the routes, quantities and contacts, as well as about the origin of the merchandise and some details of the shipment. In exchange for protection for part of his family, he provides details of Joaquin’s movements and safety procedures. The puzzle Is becoming more complete as the DEA and the British work together with the Mexican navy to tighten the siege against EL Chapo.
From Joaquin’s perspective, his December is quiet and as he does not suspect that something bad may be happening to his man in Venezuela, he takes advantage to share his time with the twins on December 24 and on December 31. There is a discreet party attended by a young Sinaloa politician who also has become his lover.
The communications that EL Chino Anthraxhad made to the “office” are tracked andare often not sent directly to Joaquin, especially if that helps the DEA in their quest to capture him.
The place of reception is located by means of a geo-satellite system in a private communication center that is in a state other than Sinaloa. The messages received are sent from different BlackBerries to another central that converts them through a software in encrypted internet messages and in turn sends them as new text messages sent by different cell numbers and of diverse geographical origins and in real time,to other BlackBerriesheld by trustworthy men who according to the urgency and importance, they make known to their boss or to whom he has delegated.
On December 23, the DEA, with patience and help from the Mexican navy, captures the brilliant South American engineer namedOcampowho has implemented a new sophisticated system at Joaquin’s organization. They have been behind him for months and as soon as they have him, they send him to the USA without any legal procedure. Ocampo, terrified from the onset agrees to collaborate with the North American authorities, without Joaquínnor any of his closest collaborators knowing anything about it. He continues his work for more than a week in Mexico and goes into a protective witness program the United States as he provides copious information to the US authorities.
Joaquín receives a visit from emissaries of the PRI political campaign of the Mexican presidency. They receive the capo’s and his associate’s support with a multimillion dollar sum that is delivered in several quotas, places and dates over the following weeks.
In December a Mexican army general meets with Joaquín’s trusted people offering the possibility of “lessening the pressure” that the Secretary of Defense exerts on the capo in exchange for 140 million US dollars. They offer that this favoring would remain in place until the end of Mexico president Felipe Calderón’s presidential term.
Joaquin and his people are only made aware of the disappearance of Ocampo on January 3 in the morning and they are not sure if he is captured or has escaped. They improvise a new communications center and only on day 4 do they learn of the capture of the “Anthrax Chinese.”
El LicensiadoDámasoadvices that Martin Esbalza was the one who introduced Ocampo and who also put him to work insideJoaquin’sempire. It is Damaso who apparently takes control of the situation and together with and through his son, he forms a new communications team composed of young hackers and communications engineers who implement new systems.
There is a certain anxiety inside El Chapo’sempire and cautionary relays are implemented on several fronts. Only a few chosen and those closest to Joaquin like, “Narices”, “Condor”, “El Bravo”, “El Picudo” and half a dozen more men stay next to El Chapo.
A couple of weeks go by and everything seems to be aligned for an imminent capture of Joaquin. The DEA puts pressure on the Mexican authorities and relies mainly on the navy, which is a fairly reliable military entitywhich is only a little permeated by the otherwise endemic corruption.
A series of operations take place in Culiacan, elite comandos outside the city are displaced from different parts of the country and arrive with technological support, and constantly release misinformation to the police networks of the city and also the state and the PGR. The capo takes refuge in a complex of residences that have their tele-communications systems set up as several of his lieutenants are detained. All intelligence information has been useful and the DEA, U.S. Marshalls and even agents from Scotland Yard join forces and develop torture induced interrogations that hoping toget Joaquin’s men to supply them withvaluable data and coordinates of his whereabouts.
The capo is surrounded and in an operation at dawn, the house where he is hiding is busted but he manages to flee via a secret gate located under a tub that gives access to a tunnel, which in turn leads to the drainage of the city. He manages to flee together with his wife Emma, El Colonel, the two little twins, the babysitter, the cook and El Condor, his chief of security. The group manages to exit through one of the mouths of the drainage outlets where they are picked up by two vans that take them out to the Pan-American highway that leads to Mazatlán. Halfway there theytransfer to other vehicles and eventually arrive at a complex of apartment suites where,sheltered and waiting to help is the licensiado and the person in charge of the square, known as El Bravo. They spend two nights there and then when his lieutenant turns on his cell phone to coordinate communications and transport aid, they are detected and in a lightning operation by Mexican navy soldiers and US agents, he is captured. The news rumbles throughout the media as the world’s foremost narcotics boss, the most wanted criminal, the all-powerful leader of the multinationalnarcoempire, the lord of the world drug empire has fallen.
In the sierra mountains, Joaquin prepares to leave in the direction of Los Cabos, where waiting for him are; Fernando Hincapié, Martín Esbalza, an important Mexican politician and several leaders of cartels and mafia clans from Europe and Canada. They expect that these series of encounters will allow the capo to materialize several projects and adjust key pieces in their safety and future dealings.