Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Saturday, February 22, 2014

Mexico’s Sinaloa Drug Chief ‘El Chapo’ Arrested

Borderland Beat

More on the news on possible Chapo arrest with some background information (this from the AP). Mexican authorities are announcing a possible press conference later today in respect to the operation. 

By Alicia A. Caldwell and Katherine Corcoran
Associated Press

In this June 10, 1993 file photo, Joaquin Guzman Loera, alias "El Chapo" Guzman, is shown to the media after his arrest at the high security prison of Almoloya de Juarez, on the outskirts of Mexico City. A senior U.S. law enforcement official said Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 that Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, was captured alive overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan, Mexico. Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted list. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

The head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel who was the world’s most powerful drug lord was captured overnight by U.S. and Mexican authorities at a hotel in Mazatlan, Mexico, The Associated Press had learned, ending a bloody decades-long career that terrorized swaths of the country.



Comparison made by BB reporter Chivis on forum of a picture of El Chapo after his capture that is making its rounds on the internet.

A senior U.S. law enforcement official said Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was taken alive overnight by Mexican marines in the beach resort town. The official was not authorized to discuss the arrest and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Guzman, 56, was found with an unidentified woman. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service were “heavily involved” in the capture, the official said. No shots were fired.


Another Picture CNN got hold of from a law enforcement official as posted in Borderland Beat forum.

Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the DEA’s most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.

A legendary outlaw, Guzman had been pursued for several weeks. His arrest comes on the heels of the takedown of several top Sinaloa operatives in the last few months and at least 10 mid-level cartel members in the last week.

The son of Sinaloa’s co-leader and Guzman’s partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, was arrested in November after entering Arizona, where he had an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities to arrange legal status for his wife.

The following month, Zambada’s main lieutenant was killed as Mexican helicopter gunships sprayed bullets at his mansion in the Gulf of California resort of Puerto Penasco in a four-hour gunbattle. Days later, police in the Netherlands arrested Zambada’s flamboyant top enforcer as he arrived in Amsterdam.

Guzman’s capture ended a long and storied manhunt. He was rumored to live everywhere from Argentina to Guatemala since he slipped out in 2001 from prison in a laundry truck — a storied feat that fed his larger-than-life persona. Because insiders aided his escape, rumors circulated for years that he was helped and protected by former Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s government, which vanquished some of his top rivals.

In more than a decade on the run, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. His fortune has grown to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the “World’s Most Powerful People” and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.

His Sinaloa Cartel grew bloodier and more powerful, taking over much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border, including such prized cities as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Guzman’s play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. In little more than a year, Mexico’s biggest marijuana bust, 134 tons, and its biggest cultivation were tied to Sinaloa, as were a giant underground methamphetamine lab in western Mexico and hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals seized in Mexico and Guatemala.

His cartel’s tentacles now extend as far as Australia thanks to a sophisticated, international distribution system for cocaine and methamphetamines.

Guzman did all that with a $7 million bounty on his head and while evading thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries devoted to his capture. A U.S. federal indictment unsealed in San Diego in 1995 charges Guzman and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import over eight tons of cocaine and money laundering. A provisional arrest warrant was issued as a result of the indictment, according to the state department.

Guzman is still celebrated in folk songs and is said to have enjoyed deep protection from humble villagers in the rugged hills of Sinaloa and Durango where he has hidden from authorities. He is also thought to have contacts inside law enforcement that helped him evade capture, including a near-miss in February 2012 in the southern Baja California resort of Cabo San Lucas just after an international meeting of foreign ministers. He was vacationing in Cabo during a visit by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“There’s no drug-trafficking organization in Mexico with the scope, the savvy, the operational ability, expertise and knowledge as the Sinaloa cartel,” said one former U.S. law enforcement official, who couldn’t be quoted by name for security reasons. “You’ve kind of lined yourself up the New York Yankees of the drug trafficking world.”


More than 70,000 people have been killed in drug violence since former President Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to drug hotspots upon taking office on Dec. 1, 2006. Many say his government’s assault on drug cartels and arrest of kingpins actually fueled the growth of Sinaloa and its major rival, the Zetas, which are now going head-to-heard for lucrative territory.

The two are battling for Nuevo Laredo, a play Guzman lost to the Zetas in 2005, and hitting each other deep inside their respective territories. Sinaloa took over a key Zeta port in Veracruz, while bands of Zetas have attacked their rival deep inside the cartel’s home, western Sinaloa and Jalisco states.

The conflict has led to the gruesome dumping of dozens of bodies by both organizations in their battlegrounds.

Authorities said the battle also weakened the Sinaloa cartel and that key hits on the top leadership in Guzman’s organization had shaken up his inner circle. In the first months of 2012, the Mexican army and federal police arrested a half dozen key Sinaloa people, including two major cocaine suppliers and a man described as the head of Guzman’s security detail.

In April last year, a video made the rounds on the Internet of a man whom U.S. authorities believed was Guzman, possibly indicating a security breach in his inner circle. In 2012, Colombian police seized 116 properties worth $15 million that they say were bought for Guzman, while the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was placing financial sanctions on a wife and several of his sons.

While his capture may have symbolic importance, many, including Guzman’s cartel partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, say it won’t stop the violence or flow of drugs through Mexico to the United States.

“When it comes to the capos, jailed, dead or extradited — their replacements are ready,” Zambada said in an exclusive interview published in Proceso magazine in April 2010.

Guzman’s success and infamy surpassed Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, who was gunned down by police in 1993 after waging a decade-long reign of terror in the South American country, killing hundreds of police, judges, journalists and politicians.

Growing up poor, Guzman was drawn to the money being made by the flow of illegal drugs through his home state of Sinaloa.

He joined the Guadalajara cartel, run by Mexican Godfather Miguel Angel Gallardo, and rose quickly through the ranks as a ruthless businessman and skilled networker, making key contacts with politicians and police to ensure his loads made it through without problems.

After Gallardo was arrested in 1989, the gang split, and Guzman took control of Sinaloa’s operations.
The Sinaloa cartel violently seized lucrative drug routes from rivals and built sophisticated tunnels under the U.S. border to move its loads.

In 1993, gunmen linked to the Tijuana-based Arrellano Felix cartel attempted to assassinate Guzman at the Guadalajara airport but instead killed Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, outraging Mexicans.
Police arrested Guzman weeks later before his escape from El Puente Grande prison in 2001. At the time of his escape, Guzman had been serving a 20-year sentence for bribery and criminal association in a maximum-security prison in Mexico.
He was rumored to have once entered a restaurant in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, where his henchmen confiscated every patron’s cellphone so their boss could eat without fear of an ambush. He was also rumored to have staged an elaborate public wedding in 2007 to an 18-year-old bride that was attended by officials and local police.

Federal police say they raided the town that day, but got there just a few hours too late.
Guzman had long been reported to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles.

His location was part of Mexican folklore, with rumors circulating of him being everywhere from Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its “Golden Triangle,” a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.

An archbishop in northern Durango state said in April 2009 that Guzman lived in a town nearby. Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain army lieutenants with a note: “Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo.”

83 comments:

  1. Thanks borderlandbeat for the comparison. Does anyone else find it strange Semar was announcing they were search for El Chapo and Mayo a few days back...and here we have a capture. If I was El Chapo I would of left the state.

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    1. Exactly my thought. Why go to an apartment in mazatlan with a girl? He had to have turned himself in.

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    2. Zetas are gunna try to take over.
      El Chapo was protecting, most importantly, jalisco but now that he is caught there is a good chance mexico Is FUCKED.

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    3. U forget about autodefensas?? Zetas mess with the population and real revolution happens if nieto fails to bring them down. El PRI is the real power players.

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  2. I can't believe it no way

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  3. This is a big news! The Mexican government need to expedite Guzman to the United States. If not, there will be blood bath. I also believe that Ismael Zambada may have given up Chapo. There are some talks in Sinaloa that Zambada gave intelligence reports of whereabouts of El-20 and Chapo. This is all speculation, but it does give some credence to what the inside people are talking about.

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    1. there using drones and tracking there phones.they catch one they get there phones and its easy to find the rest.

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    2. Yeah i agree. But the cartel uses halcones. When the military comes in the lookouts alert .

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  4. IS IT SAFE TO SAY MAYO WON THE BATTLE? SINALOA SIGUE RIFANDO CON EL SENOR ZAMBADA Y EL SENOR ESPARRAGOZA

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    1. Wait el mayo isn't the one who died fighting?

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    2. El azul is weak n el mayo is weak.where are the sinaloa cheerleaders now?

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  5. To all the people who glorified this piece of Shit, and said he would never be caught and that the CIA, DEA was protecting him... Well this midget definitely got the short end of the Stick..it was sooner rather than later. In essence not even these fools are expendable or immortal, karma & justice soon prevails..... Lets see what happens next in Mexico.

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    1. 10 years and billions of dollars is definitely later not sooner

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    2. Your so called dea and cia protect and bring u down when they want.., thats all, Noriega, Escobar, Bin laden, Kadafi, Guzman and the list go on...DRUGS STILL FLOWING NORTH.....LEGALIZE.....IT....

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    3. If you legalize the drugs private prisons will go bankrupt. 80% of people in prison are in prison for drug charges!

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  6. okay so they got one guy, big deal. theres prolly a fucker next in line ready to take his spot. and yall forgot about mayo and azul. dont count this as a victory just yet cuz it aint over

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    1. Dude its not "one guy" it's THE guy. This is huge, this fucker and all the other cumstain narcos a and PRI'istas have soiled mexicos reputation. Once the threat of revolution started with the autodefensas, mexicos corrupt elite needed a big fish to catch. Letting caro quintero out of jail got the attention of the US government. Hopefully they arrest the judge that released him before he releases chap too.

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    2. if you notice there catching someone big every week.not this big but big.tutu is next.it looks like the people got tired of this shit first and now the government has got to do something because the people might get tired of them.

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    3. The word PROLLY,does not exist.its the word PROBABLY,thats correct.

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  7. he snitched on himself

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    1. Lmao thats funny right there

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    2. Lol , where's that dude that always says chapo snitched xD this time chapo got snitched on

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    3. well now he can really snitch.

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  8. How does this effect the flow of drugs into the united states. Does it. Will it. Was it worth it? Or did they just level the playing field for a restructured new generation CDS..............

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  9. Wow now who gona fight los zetas me quito mi sombrero al señor chapo guzman caro quintero quiere su reyno paratras alfrente con la mota wena

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    1. Caro Quintero aint shit.if he was back to drugdealing is cuss chapo alowed it.

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    2. Well who in jail now and who out with mayo and azul old school caro quintero R1

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  10. Al verga no mames el chapo ...arestado. a laaa verrrga

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  11. Aii pedo grande en el egido

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  12. Doesnt he look a little young and thinner than previous pictures?

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  13. This live press conference is supposed to start at noon (pacific)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMraRFiW0Mo#t=278

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  14. For being a billionaire, POS El Chapo must've had a cheap side to him. His condo rented for only $1,200 USD monthly. So much for going out big. His last hurrah will go down in history as just a fart in the wind.Let the public parading of this animal begin.

    via Google Maps: Miramar Condominiums
    via Metula casas Real Estate: Miramar Condo Listing

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  15. Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera will continue to hold influence within CDS behind prison walls. It's safe to say he will carry-out cartel orders in prison in coordination with his sons/associates. Just like Caro Quintero did who I might was never extradited and now is a freeman. It will be awhile before Chapo is extradited. It took Mexico 11yrs. before BAF was extradited. The guys that will not be captured are the bankers who launder the money for the cartels; the govt. authorities/politicians who protect these individuals; the arms dealers where these people get their weapons; and trillionaires/billianaires and intelligence agencies who ultimately are the real PUPPET MASTERS(MASTER OF PUPPETS) orchestrating the whole shebeng behind the scenes!!!

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  16. He made a walk at 1415 CST in the SeMar hanger in Mexico D.F.

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  17. A spokesperson for the C.D.S. has just announced that in lieu of El Chapos capture they are now going to double the amount of drugs exported to the U.S. and cut prices in half in an effort to show the U.S. who's really in charge of the so called war on drugs...
    lmao

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  18. No no no my hero El Senor Chapo Guzman.. this is a sad day.Ni modo el CDS todavia tiene a Mayo/Azul al Licenciado y los hijos del Chapo al mando

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  19. Surprise!
    se los dije que alguien vien conocido abia comprado todo el pastel.
    CdeM

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  20. I guess EPN and Obama prefer to end with traditional businessmen who show the people with respect, who never molest civilians.
    Now nobody is safe.
    Now they can feel proud and put a feather in their cap.
    Why instead they don't get rid of the ones who torture innocents, like ct, z, blo, cdj?
    Pinche pri y obama.
    culeros.
    Why not la tuta y chiva, why not omar, why not hector y chapo isidro
    idiotas

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    1. Go fuck yourself chapo lover, mexico was a great place before chapo. Chapo started this war with everyone thanks to felipe calderon(chapo #2). Cd juarez was a party town and a safe place but here comes chapo and ruins the place. But unfortunately he could not take over cd juarez.

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  21. oh no! now they are going to discover el chapo's real height 5' 1" without heels, valio madre, i hope he talks about his big partners inside government and big business associates.
    now let's pray the HANK ROHN brothers get caught next, and 2 or 3 big banking drug money launderers, for icing on the cake, and don't let them go with a slap on the hand as always.
    also the US connections, at least have them mentioned somehow somewhere, they need to contribute to the well being of the public too.

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  22. "A spokesperson for the C.D.S. has just announced that in lieu of El Chapos capture they are now going to double the amount of drugs exported to the U.S. and cut prices in half in an effort to show the U.S. who's really in charge of the so called war on drugs..."

    $35.00 8 Balls Woo Hoo!! I better prepare now and start looking at cemetery plots.

    lol

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  23. What will the people that always post "Cgapo snitches" say now?

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  24. Zambada cut the deal...The USA wants one guy to deal with and want things calm along the borders...Chapo got greedy and started turf wars...it looks like they're trying to get all the cartels to play nice...move product and stay on your turf. Still gonna get bloody for the next little while while the power vacuum gets fired up !

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  25. More up close pictures of heffa Chapo Guzman-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2565538/APNewsBreak-Mexicos-Sinaloa-drug-chief-arrested.html

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  26. Chapo may in fact snitched and set this up in exchange for some kind of agreement. He had NO security looking out and NOT one shot fired? Kind of odd that "El JT" spent such a short amount of time here in the U.S. after being extradited to the U.S. back in 2006 he was deported back to Mexico this past November and arrested by the PGR and is said to be "second in command after Zambada" with no mention of Chapo. And nobody finds it odd that all of El Mayos closest security was captured with no sign of him during these captures? I smell pescado...

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  27. Amazing. You can actually see him snitching in the 2 still pictures. Being that this was in Sinaloa, people thought it was just normal conversation.

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    1. Haha You My Friend Are The Winner. This Is Hilarious

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  28. and someone mistook THIS MIDGET for the Cardinal of Guadalajara???? Kids, don't do drugs, it affects your eyesight.

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    1. They actually never saw the cardinal, they were expecting a grand marquis with el chapo in it at a certain time, I forget what color, and they shot at the first one they saw

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  29. looks more like El Azul than El Chapo

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    1. You know why they call him el Azul right? Because he's really really dark skinned. This man is not.

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  30. anyone noticed his redneck tan :)

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  31. So the CIA were no longer happy to only get a part of the sinaloa cartel profits now they want it all. They allready control basically all the heroin from Afghanistan and now they want even more of the coke trade. If drigs prices dont go up a lot in the US now at least for a few months its just more proof the cia are bringing in drugs by the plane load.

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  32. So is azul number 1? Or mayo?

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  33. Mini loc taking over

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  34. Sinaloa sigue con el Mayo y el Azul!! Tal vez se unan con los Beltran y sea como antes. Es tiempo de desiciones y esa es una posibilidad.

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  35. Will this end the "drug war"

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  36. I kinda figures they'd get Carrillo before chapo wonder why that is going to do to everything I think mexico is gonna get worse

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  37. Is it me, or does it look like someone roughed him up?

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  38. Ignorant people, he's "el chapo" for a reason! He's the CIA center of intelligence agency all in a 5'6 one man army; it took two states to find him, when he was in plain sight;) Embarrassment two both mexico & USA, plus no shots fired, I find this hard to believe on both parties, especially chapo and the extremity he would go to stay free, I say this is just a diversion mexico & us has plotted in order to see complete something else! Here in the USA "money talks bullshit walks" & Chapo my friend has billions! This is all just a diversion for something bigger & better!

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    1. Maby they are going to take his money.which they can do.like they did to escobar at www.deepblacklies

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  39. Chapo won't say nothing, not for a deal or to save his ass! What's the point he's already in their for life;( He had everything down to the last detail, thought out & planned.. Even though he's captured, he's still free; El Cartel De Sinaloa va seguir, y como nunca va prosperar; Just to show & prove a point..

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  40. Its a doggie dog world

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  41. February 22, 2014 at 12:34 PM

    LOL, he needs a vacation ?

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  42. Pena nieto is on the side of the Carrillo fuentes family!!!

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  43. genaro garcia luna,ex-SSP boss is much dirtier than el chapo or even los zetas, using his position to carry on with kidnappings for ransom, extortion and murders, julian leyzaola and all the other corrupt federal police like the national commissioner Enrique Francisco Galindo Ceballos, who also is accused of kidnaping and murdering his own state police commanders like Martin Castillo Palomo in san luis potosi, DFS commander Julian Slim Helu, the "forgotten" commander without a record also was well covered by the government until his death, his brother carlos slim helu knew how to use his brother to get onto his businessman career,using his influences to install genero garcia luna at the top of the SSP,that makes mexican businessmen,and politicians dirtier than all the narcos and their sicarios put together, let's wake up and go for the bigger rats in mexico and the US...

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  44. They should wheel one of those acid barrels right into his cell and tell him to start talking non stop and if he doesn't, tie his ass up, suspend him above the barrel of acid by his hands and feet, slowly lower him towards the barrel of acid and turn that fidget into a Dunkin' Donut......Adiós mahón serrote!

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  45. Where's all the idiots that said EPN was bought off by the CDS? He's proven to go after all the cartels not just one. It was Calderon that was protecting El Sapo. When EPN came into office he captured z40 and now El Sapo. EPN should now go after Calderon

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  46. I think Rafael Quintero was released for a purpose. To get Intel on El Sapo.

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  47. I AM 200% SURE THAT IS A COPY OF CHAPO BUT NOT HIM THINK ABOUT THE MAN HAS THE POWER AND MONEY TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE WHAT EVER HE WANTS YOU TO THINK.ESPECAILLY IF THE USA GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED. ITS JUST LIKE ESCOBAR RUMOR HAS IT THAT HE IS STILL ALIVE AND THE INDIVIDUAL THAT WAS KILLED IN COLUMBIA WAS A DECOY A COPY OF HIM.

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  48. Arturo Beltran L should be out soon. Let's not forget how strong and loyal his people are.

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  49. why are retards saying its a double of him? they have had a DNA test to CONFIRM it was the real guy!!! do some people really think there would of official announcement he was captured if they were not sure?

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  50. Does anyone think serafin zambada is the one giving up people?

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  51. THAT'S NOT EL CHAPO,,,HE'S STILL OUT THERE ,,, PASEANDOSE CON CARO QUINTERO..JALANDO LA BANDA ARRIVA MEXICALI Y SINALOA..

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  52. @4:29 the word prolly does exist, you have once more proved it, and you have illustrated us about its meaningful significance,it will move faster on to the oxford and british encyclopaedia's dictionaries from the american slang dungeons it has lived all this time, and it is all your fault, grammar nazi, spelling bee dropout, grametrica for ever!

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  53. Dámaso Lopez is now the head of the sinaloa cartel

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