What’s Next for Drug Lord, El Chapo

Joaquin Guzman Loera, nicknamed “El Chapo” is known as one of the biggest drug lords in the world. He led the huge Sinaloa Cartel, which distributes drugs like cocaine, marijuana and heroin to many countries across the world. Police have tried to capture Guzman many times, but he always escaped. On February 22nd, 2014, however, Guzman was caught and arrested at a beachfront hotel in Mazatlan. Following a tip from an anonymous informant, Mexican marines and police surround the area and raided Guzman’s room, arresting him with no shots fired. A DNA test was taken to insure they had the real Joaquin Guzman, and it was indeed a 100% match. Guzman has been charged with organized crime and drug trafficking. When being interviewed by prosecutors, Guzman stated, “I don’t belong to any cartel or have a cartel.”

El Chapo’s reign began when he joined the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980’s, when the top drug lords of the time were Hector Palma and Felix Gallardo. Guzman was respected and feared, for he would kill anyone that upset him without hesitating. When Palma was sent to jail, Guzman took control of the new Sinaloa Cartel, which is now the wealthiest and most powerful drug cartel in all of Mexico. The power of Guzman is definitely great without question; the United States Department of the Treasury described Guzman as “the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.” He was also Forbes’ “World’s Most Powerful People” list for four years, ranking number 67 out of 72.

Many people believe Guzman should be serving his sentence in an American prison because of an incident where he escaped from a Mexican prison in a laundry cart. It took police thirteen years to find Guzman after that, and they don’t want any chance of him escaping again. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security told Mexico to extradite Guzman to the United States, but the Mexican government would rather have him serve his sentence in Mexico. For now it has been decided that Guzman will be tried and serve a sentence in Mexico first, and then be moved to America. Now the question is, is anything going to change? We asked Jackie Salvador, a senior at Mission Bay, if she feels things are going to change, “I believe nothing will change. There might be a rough patch in the beginning of his absence but everything will fall into place with time. From my experiences, I have family there and visit frequently and it’s pretty safe. I think some parts of Mexico might get more actively policed from this fiasco, and tourism could even go up, so Mexico could prosper from this.”

Though this is a big breakthrough, not everyone is happy about the arrest.The weekend after capturing El Chapo, two-thousand people, including children, began protesting through the streets of Culiacan, the capital of Mazatlan. The protesters were chanting “Release him!” and holding signs that read “He was the protector.” While this may sound silly, it may also be true. There have been stories around saying that El Chapo keeps other rival drug cartels out of Sinaloa, therefore making it more peaceful. There have even been rumors about Guzman paying for everyone’s check at restaurants. Even though these are simple and nice gestures, is it worth having a man who has killed people free? We asked Ines Lopez, senior at Mission Bay, about her feelings about if El Chapo should be free, “I don’t think El Chapo should be free because he killed a lot of people, but I do understand why people would want him free. Other drug leaders were afraid of him so he kept the city safe, but he needs to be in jail for the crimes he committed.”

The future is still uncertain for Joaquin Guzman, but hopefully there will be no violence resulting from his capture.