El Chapo ((full)) Site

's profile on "El Mencho," the man who replaced El Chapo as Mexico's most wanted. currently operating, or more details on El Chapo's trial

He famously escaped Mexican custody twice—once in a laundry cart in 2001 and once via a mile-long tunnel under his prison shower in 2015 [25, 27]. Conviction:

We remember the two prison breaks (1991 and 2015). The mile-long tunnel to his shower. The motorcycle on rails. It sounds cool. El Chapo

When the Guadalajara Cartel fractured in 1989, seized the moment. Alongside his partner Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, he took control of the Pacific coast routes. Thus, the Sinaloa Cartel was born—though El Chapo would later claim in court that he was merely a "farmer," not a kingpin.

If tunnels made rich, prison escapes made him infamous. He was first captured in Guatemala in 1993 and extradited to Mexico, where he was sentenced to 20 years for homicide and drug trafficking. He was incarcerated at the maximum-security Puente Grande prison. 's profile on "El Mencho," the man who

But prison was merely a pause for El Chapo. With a fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions, he essentially purchased the prison. He bribed guards, warden staff, and officials, turning Puente Grande into his personal hotel. He continued to run the cartel from behind bars, enjoying visits from his wife, actresses, and business associates.

By the late 1990s, the DEA estimated that was moving tons of cocaine per week into the United States. Forbes magazine would eventually list him among the world’s most powerful billionaires, ranking him above the presidents of several nations. The mile-long tunnel to his shower

Born on April 4, 1957, in the rugged mountains of Sinaloa, Mexico, Guzmán grew up in extreme poverty. To survive, he began cultivating marijuana and poppy at a young age, a necessity he later described as his only means of buying food. His early career was spent learning the trade under established traffickers, where he quickly earned a reputation for efficiency and ruthless logistics.

For nine months, he was the ghost again. He evaded a massive manhunt, even traveling to a remote mountain cabin to film a meeting with actor Sean Penn for Rolling Stone magazine—a foolish move that embarrassed his security detail and accelerated his recapture. He was finally nabbed in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, in January 2016 following a bloody shootout.

His immense wealth was such that Forbes magazine ranked him as the 701st richest person in the world in 2009, a ranking that later inspired the "701" branding used by his supporters.