Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Monday, February 4, 2019

The Dirty Secret of El Chapo's Downfall

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat-----Vanity Fair by Don Winslow



El Chapo History and Trial

From top, packages of cocaine seized last year by Peruvian police feature the faces of two famed drug lords: Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán (left) and Pablo Escobar (right); Authorities escort Guzmán to a helicopter in Mexico City after his capture in Mazatlán, February 22, 2014; Among the evidence presented in Guzmán’s trial in New York: a diamond-encrusted handgun decorated with his initials.

It’s the trial of the century, right?

The satisfying third act in the dramatic rise-and-fall story of a celebrated Mob boss who became one of the world’s richest men, a Robin Hood who gave to the poor, a modern-day Houdini who escaped from not one but two maximum-security prisons.

And it’s great show business with a full cast of characters: a compelling antihero, high-level drug traffickers who “flipped,” a sexy mistress, a beautiful young wife in the gallery.

It has titillating stories of luxury jets, private zoos, a naked escape (with said mistress) through an elaborate tunnel, and wretched excesses of wealth that would bring a blush to the faces of the most shameless “stars” of reality TV.

Yes, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the infamous jefe of the all-powerful Sinaloa cartel—“the godfather of the drug world,” as one D.E.A. official styled him—is being brought to justice in a trial that will stand as a major victory in the War on Drugs.

As of this writing, the prosecution and defense have finished their closing statements and we don’t know how it will end. Maybe one of the jurors will have been compromised and Guzmán will be acquitted. Most likely he’ll be convicted and sent to prison for the rest of his life.

Whatever the result, in the big picture …

It doesn’t matter.

The Guzmán trial will do nothing to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.

Don’t get me wrong. Guzmán’s conviction for trafficking literally tons of drugs into the United States would be a good thing. He’s not Robin Hood. He’s a killer responsible for untold suffering—surely far more than he’s charged with—and if he spends the rest of his life in prison it will be something like justice.

But his capture has done nothing to ameliorate the American drug problem, and his conviction would be likewise meaningless.

The reason is simple.

By the time of Guzmán’s capture, “escape,” and recapture in the farce that made him a celebrity, he had already lost most of his power.

He was superfluous.

Expendable.

The critical thing to understand is that Guzmán wasn’t—and never would be—the sole “boss” of the Sinaloa cartel. We tend to think of cartels as pyramids, with a single head at the top, but in fact they’re more like wedding cakes with several tiers.

Guzmán was on the top tier, with others, the most important being Juan Esparragoza Moreno, the late Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, and a man named Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who has been prominently featured, albeit in absentia, in this trial.

A time-tested defense-attorney maxim says that if your client is obviously guilty, put someone else on trial. In their opening statement, Guzmán’s lawyers argued that he wasn’t the real boss of the Sinaloa cartel, long the biggest D.T.O. (drug-trafficking organization) in the world. Instead, they claim, that honor belonged to Zambada, and he has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to high-ranking officials in the Mexican government in order to remain, well, in absentia.

Witnesses, including Zambada’s own brother and son, have testified to the same.

But nobody calls Mayo Zambada the “godfather of the drug world,” and that’s the way he likes it. You don’t see Zambada interviewed in Rolling Stone, trying to launch romances with television stars, or working on a biopic about himself, as Guzmán did.

Zambada is a conservative businessman who prefers to stay behind the curtain. (If there is a Don Corleone of Mexican drug lords, it is Ismael Zambada.) And his partner Guzmán was becoming increasingly problematic.

Mob bosses remain in power as long as they’re making other people money. Guzmán had begun to cost people money. At the start of his downfall, he was suffering huge declines in marijuana profits due to legalization in America. Everyone was, and one of the cartel’s responses was to get back into the heroin market for the first time since the 1970s, in order to grab a cut of the American pharmaceutical companies’ booming opioid-addict market. The cartels produced so much heroin that they created a surplus, which, in a reversal of previous policy, they started to sell inside Mexico.

Guzmán got greedy and demanded a cut of the profits from local dealers in Sinaloa, thereby alienating his own power base. Combine that with his increasingly bizarre antics—more about that later—and it’s clear why he had become a liability to his partners, principally Zambada. Sources in Mexico inform me that Zambada—aging and ailing—has been wanting to take his billions and retire quietly.

But he had another problem besides Guzmán: two sons who were facing long sentences in the United States.

In 2010, Zambada’s son Vicente was extradited to the U.S. for drug trafficking and was looking at a potential life sentence. In November 2013, his brother Serafín was arrested in Arizona for conspiracy to traffic cocaine and methamphetamine and faced a sentence of ten-years-to-life as well as a $10 million fine.

In 2014, it came to light that Vicente had cut a secret plea deal agreeing to testify against Guzmán. In February 2015, Serafín was transferred to an undisclosed location, but there was no record of him in federal custody. It was widely assumed at the time that he, like his brother, needed someone to “trade up” for, and that it wasn’t going to be his father. The increasingly erratic, increasingly public Guzmán was the obvious candidate. It is no coincidence that Guzmán was initially captured while the Zambada brothers were making their deals.

In March 2018, Serafín was sentenced to five-and-a-half years. He was released last September.

Still, Guzmán retained enough support, influence, and money to engineer his 2015 “daring escape,” allegedly accomplished through a near mile-long tunnel dug under the maximum-security-prison walls and also under the supposedly unwitting noses of the Mexican Army, the federales, and the prison authorities.

It was neither daring nor an escape, but rather a bought-and-paid-for departure. Prison surveillance video shows a fully dressed Guzmán “getting into the shower” behind the privacy wall (enough said) in his cell, which blocks the view as he supposedly goes down the tunnel entrance. Despite Dámaso López’s testimony, there is still cause to doubt that he ever went into that tunnel. If you can afford $15 million in construction costs and bribes to build a tunnel, you can also afford not to have to use it. It’s possible he went out the front door, the same as he did during his first “escape,” in 2001, for which there was also a face-saving official explanation—that he went out hidden in a laundry cart.

Guzmán might actually have remained free if this spectacle hadn’t brought so much attention and embarrassment to the Mexican government. The media frenzy brought pressure, especially from the U.S., that forced Mexico to launch an intense manhunt as well as raids, arrests, and seizures of product targeting the whole Sinaloa organization.

In other words, Guzmán’s shenanigans cost the cartel money.

The old truism that there’s no such thing as bad publicity is definitely not true for organized-crime figures, and for whatever reason—whether he became enamored of his own press clippings or just came to believe his own legend—Guzmán started to seek the limelight. He wanted Hollywood to make a biopic about him and that effort—combined with his infatuation with Mexican soap-opera star Kate del Castillo—led Guzmán to sit for an infamous interview with the actor Sean Penn for Rolling Stone magazine.

The article, which disclosed that Penn and del Castillo passed through a nearby army checkpoint on their way to the meeting, has been credited with leading Mexican law enforcement to Guzmán’s location. Let’s be real. They already knew where he was. But the publicity helped persuade Zambada and other decision-makers that it was time not just to allow Guzmán to be removed but to demand it. The only condition was that he not be hurt. Five of his associates were killed in the raid that netted him, but Guzmán and his assistant were unharmed.

This much is sure: Guzmán would not have been recaptured or extradited without the permission and cooperation of Zambada and other powerful figures in the cartel and Mexican government.

Now Vicente is seeking the rare and coveted S-5 visa, which will allow him and his family to remain in the U.S. for three years—and indefinitely, if all goes according to plan. His testimony at the trial included a lot of incriminating evidence about Guzmán, as well as about his own father, whom he named as the head of the Sinaloa cartel. The testimony that Vicente did give has been viewed as a betrayal of the cartel and his father, but was it really? Or did the father give his son permission to save himself by telling what everyone already knows anyway, a common practice among narcos facing long sentences in the U.S.? Unlike the Mafia, the Mexican cartels encourage their members who have been arrested to tell everything they know if they can cut a deal for a shorter sentence—all they are obliged to do is relay what they’ve given up to defense attorneys, who then pass the information on so the cartels can make the necessary adjustments.

And the most damaging testimony Vicente has given has been against Guzmán. In a sense, one can view the Zambadas’ testimony as an extension of the internal conflict now being fought between the “Zambada faction” of the Sinaloa cartel and the “Guzmán faction,” led by three of Chapo’s adult sons.

The fix was in, and that’s why this trial doesn’t make any difference to the overall drug problem. The export of cocaine, methamphetamine, and especially heroin didn’t even slow after Guzmán’s arrest.

To be sure, the cartel has been in chaos since Guzmán’s extradition, but it is partly due to internal bickering, because the power-sharing arrangement that Guzmán had envisioned between his sons, Zambada, and his former right-hand man, Damaso Lopez, has fallen apart. The larger issue is the rise of a new powerhouse: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is successfully contesting the Sinaloans for smuggling routes, border crossings, and poppy fields. Other, smaller organizations have also rushed to fill the power gap. As a result, in the wake of Chapo’s extradition, Mexico has suffered its two most violent years since its government started to keep track, in 1997.

If you think that Guzmán’s incarceration has been a major victory in the War on Drugs, explain why heroin overdoses in the United States have risen dramatically, not fallen, since his capture. The drug problem has gotten worse, not better.

It’s business as usual, because it’s set up to be.

Guzmán was one piece, albeit an important one, in a complex machinery composed of drug traffickers and police (on both sides of the border), as well as military, judicial, political, governmental, and business entities. Together, they make the international drug trade possible. The scope of this enterprise is gargantuan.

We’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars a year that flow from the United States to Mexico, money that has been re-invested in legitimate businesses in Mexico, the United States, and around the world.

Some of it finds its way into the pockets of top government officials—including one or more presidents, if Guzmán’s lawyers and some witnesses are to be believed.

Mayo Zambada’s brother, Jesús, now in prison in the United States, testified that the partners in the cartel pooled more than $50 million to bribe the government of then president Felipe Calderón (2006–2012). (This accusation is strenuously denied.) He has further stated—although Judge Brian Cogan suppressed this testimony—that he paid several million dollars in bribes to a representative of current president and then Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador. (López Obrador has declined to comment on this allegation.)

Alex Cifuentes, a former high-ranking Guzmán aide, testified that the cartel sent $100 million to then Mexican president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018) to protect Guzmán from capture, and that he told American authorities about the alleged bribe back in 2016. In closing arguments, the defense said the bribe actually came from Zambada, for the purpose of having Guzmán arrested. Spokesmen for Peña Nieto have indignantly denied Cifuentes’s claim.

We might well suspect the veracity of drug traffickers. They are certainly not angels, and mendacity would be the most venial of their sins. But there are good reasons to believe them: They are all in American federal custody and have negotiated lenient sentencing deals that would be voided if they were found to have committed perjury. As such, they’ve already pleaded guilty to drug charges and therefore have nothing to hide. Furthermore, they haven’t contradicted each other, and audio-surveillance tapes entered into evidence have confirmed important parts of their testimony.

Most importantly, the “revelations” that these witnesses have brought forward aren’t revelatory—they merely confirm what we’ve always known. I’ve been writing about the Mexican drug world for two decades, and I’ve heard credible accounts of these bribes and payoffs continually from day one. I’m not unique in this regard—one highly respected journalist after another has reported these stories, some at the cost of their lives.

The point is that systemic corruption has been in place for many years, it remains in place, and it is far larger and far more powerful than a single defendant, even the supposed “godfather of the drug world.”

The real godfathers of the drug world sit in comfortable offices, not in a trial dock or a cell. Sure, putting a bad guy like Guzmán away is a good thing. But he’s only the latest in a long list: Pedro Avilés; Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo; Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the “Lord of the Skies”; Pablo Escobar; Nicky Barnes; Benjamín Arellano Félix; Osiel Cárdenas; and now Chapo Guzmán.

To what end?

Drugs are more plentiful, more potent, and less expensive than ever.

We’ll never find an answer to the drug problem until we ask the big questions about systemic corruption; the nexus between drug trafficking, government, and business; the prison-industrial complex that is funded by drug convictions; and the very nature of drug use and addiction itself. What is the true nature of the drug-trafficking machine? What is the depth and width of the corruption that allows it to flourish? Where do the billions of dollars go? How does it provide protection, and who provides that protection?

And something else.

What is the corruption of the American soul that makes us want the drugs in the first place? Opioids—which are killing more Americans now than either car crashes or guns—are a response to pain. We have to ask the question: what is the pain?

Until we ask and answer that question, the drug problem will always be with us.

And the trial of the century?

Sorry, but it just doesn’t matter.

71 comments:

  1. Very well said and written....you're right....It doesn't matter...

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    1. I wrote to Don and told him that is my fave line "It doesn't matter"

      and it doesn't. This circus is to demonstrate how the US is winning a war that failed from "go"...

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    2. The artículo was very good and very tru facts about how things work in Mexico. The gob always has too many benificiary of drug money and this wrote correctly about Chapo y Señor Ismael.
      Best artículo BB and i wish this was in Spanish so I could understand better and share with too many people who live in a tiny buble and believe everything they hear.
      Gracias BB

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    3. The way I see it is... no crime will ever stop. Not drug trafficking, not murders, not rapes, nothing. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay for your part. You think convicting someone of murder, even giving them the death penalty, helps in any way? Will it teach others a lesson? No. It won’t stop murders but he / she has to pay for his / her part.

      If people feel that we shouldn’t bother prosecuting drug lords bc the drugs won’t stop then we shouldn’t bother prosecuting anyone for any crime... since crimes won’t ever stop. Simple.

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    4. I agree...I commented on an earlier post, that this trial showed the world allot more about America, than the Sinaloa Cartel.

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    5. Best article that ive read for a long time. Even if factually there are some errors concerning the mayo and Guzman clans it touches our base problem which is America's love for drugs. As long as there is a demand there will be someone willing to provide. And as long as some one is supplying as soon as they are arrested or killed there will be some else ready to take their place. The futality of the war on drugs hopefully will someday be realized. Legalization with government ownership is the only way out of the hopelessness we have created for so many people

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    6. Also the best line from the 80s movie meatballs.. .lets give bill Murray a little credit here!! Sorry but had to lighten the mood a bit

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    7. U the man chivis!!!! I love u

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    8. 431 sounds correct 618 sounds incorrect... the USA consumes drugs because of the strength of the US dollar and Americans proximity to the country where cocaine is grown produced manufactured bottled and sold... has anyone ever tried coke and not like it??? Legalize it and the world goes up in a crack pipe...
      Stop the corruption in Latin American countries or just legalize it...
      not many peasants in Central America and Mexico are wasting money getting high when food stamps are not available...
      Latin America is corrupt to the point it is acceptable to pay off a cop when you get a speeding ticket...
      Legalize drugs in Latin America if you want...
      GC

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    9. 1:43 I know people’s major defense line is “if Americans weren’t drug addicts there wouldn’t be drug trafficking” what they fail to see is the people who consume by force. There’s been documentaries, reports, and evidence in trials of pimps drugging the girls (who are being forced to be prostitutes). In most cases these girls are injected heroin by force keep them “calm” during RAPES. I don’t know the exact percentages of how many recover and die from overdoses though. If drugs weren’t overflowed into the US these girls wouldn’t be forced to become drug addicts!

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    10. 1:43 I also agree that legalizing coke will definitely increase its consumption...

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    11. Guzman had be captured regardless if it mattered or not, the law is the law.

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    12. 1:43 the strength of the dollar and proximity to manufacturing countries has no influence at all in U.S's consumption, i live in Australia where a gram of coke costs $300-$400 and it is just as in demand if not more than in the U.S.
      Although i myself have no answer or reason for this massive demand and endless consumption of drugs i do know its not because of its easy accessibility or price. The problem is far deeper.

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  2. Guzman falls while the rest whoever they are continue at the top. His children will possible inherit being the next scapegoat. If they think about it, maybe it's time to cash our. The focus would then be on the true leaders, that would truly impact a break of the federation. Theirs not to many big families in the federation and no one would want to survive them selves as propaganda as the head. It would collapse and the left remnant would have to reorganize into a different format. Gallardo leftovers would mutate.

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    1. You don’t even know what you’re saying.
      In Sinaloa Chapos Kids only control Culiacan.
      Manuelito controls from Badiraguato to Surutato and another person controls from Surutato to I forget where

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  3. Chapo was guy who reached the upper echelon of trafficking since the likes of Pablo Escobar... no doubt he was ruthless in his hey-day to stay on top on of business... but he murdered, snitched, set up, & hustled everyone he probably came across & now it's cost him his life he seems to have his accepted his fate... his life is a crazy story but shouldn't be celebrated but probably will in continuous stories, tv shows, & movies... and Hollywood & Corporate America will cash in on his story while the flow of drugs will have never stopped flooding the streets... Chapo just became a mark for the system to take down... it goes a lot higher than him or Mayo to be honest... The flow of drugs is massive... truth be told there's just so much corruption, violence, treachery, & mystery that many stories will never be known... but as long as dollars flow to the pockets of officials, politicians, governments, presidents, corporations, & other mysterious entities the drug will never stop... everyone is hooked & Pandora's box is open...

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    1. You typed all that nonsense for nothing lol

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    2. If only yoh put that much effort into doing something productive

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  4. Some cartels do have one boss. A lot have many. Just saying.

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    1. When you post a comment, you are already saying something, no need to type just saying lol, de Grammer police.

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    2. Very funny, some people fontd know what they say.

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  5. Bravo very well written article!

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  6. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Don't listen to him. Make no mistake about it El Chapo made the Sinaloa cartel, due to his intelligence, his will and his charisma. Mayo Zambada is on the run and had nothing at all to do with Guzman's capture. El Mayo Zamabada is one of many top ranking drug lords in Mexican history like Nacho Coronel, Arturo Beltran Leyva but he is nothing special, the one difference between him and the other drug lord is that he is a RECLUSE that's why hes not been caught but every one around him including his non-recluse party going sons are in prison while El Chapo's party going sons are still free. El Chapo is in prison not because Mayo Zambada planned it rather because El Chapo got tired of living in the sierras which made it easier for him to be tracked by the DEA and Navy. Again Don Wilson doesn't know what hes talking about.

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    1. Agreed Don Wilson is making things up

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  7. Thank you for that article.
    It felt like an objective and sincere summary.

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    1. It’s not thou he just speculate

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  8. Well said Chivis, but I think (my personal opinion) that you have some kind of resentment towards El Chapo all the blogs you ever posted have always been anti Chapo. The CDS is a federation that is run like a billion dollars enterprise, it’s has many important bosses that answer to the ceo , cfo, Vp etc etc. Which in this case was el Mayo , el Azul and el chapo. This whole thing in court about el Mayo being the main boss is a strategy plan. Nobody what’s to be the main boss when ur busted and the US is trying to bury you. Check these Facts out chivis, mayos kids ? Arrested. Azules kids ? Dead or escaped from jail. Chapós kids ? Chilling. Except for one that was killed in the turf war with Los Beltran’s. Chapo escapes again. No low level boss would ever do that. Once he got extradited to the US Mexico went to shit. So if he wasn’t the boss then why Mexico burning? Shouldn’t Mayo have control of the situation? My point is that el chapo was the man in charge. Don’t get me wrong Mayo is his equal but can’t run a whole cartel and country like chapo did

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    1. hilarious---yesterday someone write in accusing me of being on the chapo payroll because of my blind support. The dog i have in the fight is justice equality as I have stated all along. everyone should have the same rights.

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    2. Chivis has been nuetral, is writing, translating stories, but then comes a crybaby.

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    3. Lmao Chivis always taking heat... y ni te pagan por esto 😂😂

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    4. @2:24 Do you even pay attention to what is actually going on? Obviously not.

      If you did you'd know that El Mayo's kids are going to come out of this with their freedom and quite possibly a visa to live permanently in the United States as free men.

      El Chapo's kids? Eventually they'll be arrested or killed. They certainly won't be getting a coveted visa to move to the United States. Except his twin daughters of course as they were born in San Diego. But his sons that are in the business? Not a chance. Once daddy is gone they have no value from a "let's make a deal" standpoint.

      Mexico isn't burning because of El Chapo's capture. Mexico was burning long before that.

      Stop worshiping a drug lord. You sound like you should be on InfoWars.

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    5. You think the Zambada kids chose to go to jail? No. They were all caught unexpectedly. Look at el Mayo flaco he is going from safe house to safe house. Vicente testimony was nothing special, everyone already knew what he said on the stand. They will hook him up with a visa and a put him in the witness protection program because that’s the deal that was probably made between them and the Dirty ass DEA. Chapós kids will keep running around Mexico like nothing. Why? Because of their strong political protection. What happen when Damaso betrayed them? He got taken out and his son went running for his life to the US. Then knew they are as good as dead if they were in Mexico. Mexico wasn’t as bad as it is now. There was peace in Many states that are now up in flames. Not blowing Chapo but give credit to the guy that ran Mexico to his benefit and also kept a lot of plazas in check

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  9. Guzman waa the fall guy all along, so that the other bosses of Sinaola, the high ranking military and government can keep the U.S. distracted with this useless trial, while the Cartel increase production 1000% and no one is going to notice this for the next few years.

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  10. El Señor will forever be El Patron. I will continue to provide security for Ivan and Alfredo.

    El Six of GN

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  11. So who will take over Mayo´s part the biggest part of the cartel? He is the last real boss left. Both his kids are rats and will hide in the united states of corruption. El mayo is old and will not last much longer. After him it is bye bye CDS? At least as a major force in the drug trade. Many small weak groups with constant in fighting and nothing keeping them together as a "cartel" The young dummie generation will never be able to build up anything like the old CDS again.

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    1. There's a lot of characters that dont put themselves in the spotlight. Did you read the article? CDS is not structured like a pyramid.

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  12. Puro arguende como le gusta a los weros desavridos.

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  13. The trail of the century does matter of incarcerating Chapo, how many years is the question. This will set a fine example, to other cartel bosses. And others that take drugs into the USA. Of course it does not put a dent on drugs, because you got lots of cartels competing.

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    1. This only sets an example to law abiding citizens. You think drug traffickers dont know what risk they run when they decided to take up drug trafficking as a career. If anything stuff like this just makes them people smarter. They learn from each others mistakes and come up with innovative new ways to avoid them. Please man.

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    2. How does it set a example there are other plenty drug traffickers in jail or even lower lever doing more time than the bigger fishes look at zerafin or the Flores twins

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    3. @ 7:21
      There's a saying that all these guys are fond of that translated goes something like, "Better to live 5 years like a king than an entire life on your knees". They know what they're signing up for. They don't care. They know that sooner or later they're gonna end up as a headless corpse or as a prison snitch. They don't give a fuck. It won't set a "fine example" to anyone in the drug trade or thinking about entering it.

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  14. excellent article. saludos desde Jalisco.

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  15. To heck with the visas for these snitches. Send them back! He will just use the freedom and privileges of our country to slide back into the drug trade.

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  16. What are the sources for this article other than a bunch of rats?

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  17. Excellent insight Mr Winslow! I think it’s a masterpiece. As many ass holes we put in jail over the years, the problems persist in consumer and supplier countries. Mexico is corrupt nation repressing the poor and feeding the rich. The US loves to self medicate. We choose drugs and the crap that comes with it.

    We thankfully kept our family drug free. The friends we have, extended family, schools, sports, activities, church, love and support were of utmost importance in guiding our children through our drug crisis. A person with little support has to figure it out on their own and many do not. Not all are blessed with strong famililial support.

    Great job Mr Winslow!

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  18. The reason for drug addiction/use many is that powerful opiates are used to provide much needed pain relief for major surgery, dental or otherwise.
    That starts something that if long enough duration leads to a brain chemistry problem: you body won't produce enough endorphins to feel normal. And if you get unlucky, you will find some street level pain relief, which can lay you down to sleep for 30 years, or as long as the money doesn't run out. Winding down detox and other things work to manage the situation, like Passion Flower or Kratom to ease getting off the stuff. Thats the answer to your question, why the demand. Very simple, say your prayers, Divine protection is needed at any stage of that, things can go very wrong leading to death or prison.
    God Bless Borderland Beat, we appreciate all the time spent.
    - Bub

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  19. For years there were rumors of Mayo telling Chapo that he had to turn himself in. Along with Azul, Nacho and Mayo they ran everything. Chapo was powerful but had to ask for permission to do certain things from them...When Jalisco, Michoacán and Sinaloa were burning (cartel violence) yet Guanajuato was very peaceful and quiet. There was word that reason being was that el Azul lived in GTO which made it untouchable. Ever since his death or retirement whichever it is well now we see that there probably was some truth to that. Chapo was the fall guy...powerful but not enough.

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  20. The 'pain' that creates the demand for drugs is a direct result of the liberals attack on men, fathers and the family.

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    1. Man... All this time I have been thinking it was just boredom that people decide to do drugs.... I was way off...

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    2. Sadness and feeling alone in the world made me want to drink every day and try every drug in the book to see if I felt any better... thankfully that was also the time when I found out about church. I tried going everyday and praying every night... that shit saved me till this day

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  21. Wonderfully written chivis. Astonishing in depth analysis. It’s unlikely that chapo captured and extradited without the concurrence of mayo and other top leaders of cartel and government. Chapo became cancer to the cartel maybe that’s why they wanted to eliminate him decently. Post escape in 2015, chapo might have imagined himself as a mythical hero which paved way for his downfall. As always, the higher you go, higher the damage if fallen. What you said the post is true, drug war is a endless fighting, it’s not just a fault of USA and Mexico. Some people will say legalising the drugs be a good idea, yes it is, but it’s good for short term. In long term it’s obviously a bad idea unlike prohibition era of USA. Drugs and liquor are not same. Good post chivis. Keep rocking

    SK

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    1. It was written by Don Winslow, not chivis. Altho she probably could have written it.

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  22. Cds will never be the same again, that's why mencho keeps taking their plazas. The mata Zetas were the best and worst thing that happened to CDS.. gente nueva, anthrax and the other clowns are nothing but hype in corridos. Just saying..

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    1. I disagree. Gente Nueva Special Forces and Antrax Black Ops have and will continue to protect the CDS empire.

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    2. 11:51 I agree with your comments.

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  23. Good article Chivis. I wish I can put in my knowledge but it’s unsafe to do so. I wish you the best in 2019
    . -the guy who knows nothing

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    1. Yeah... Better keep it to yourself brutha... Safer that way...

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  24. At the end, Benjamin AF won that war. He will be out in less than 10 years fron federal and his remaining sentence in Mexico got annulled and dropped. He will be a free old man enjoying his net worth that was never touched by Mexico or the US. Arellano played his cards right.

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    1. Wow !!!! Now that’s a happy ending

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    2. That’s right,after Ramon got killed and Benjamin got arrested everybody claimed Chapo won the war,now Benjamin is about to be free,Ramon is dead but Atleast he’s not doing life in prison,and Chapo who knows what’s gonna happen.

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    3. It was fate, you can play your cards however you want. At the end of the day each of our destinies is already written.

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    4. Omg you can’t be serious right? How did el CAF win? 2 or 3 of the brothers are dead, they have no power in Tijuana, CDS is almost back to having 100% control of it again. Mencho has pulled his people back. Benjamin is a walking dead man if he goes back to Tijuana.

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    5. Until somebody dressed like a clown goes up and kills you.

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    6. Se lo cargo la de hacer gente, digo el payaso

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  25. The problem is in the USA we are the ones that demand the drugs. Thats why they smuggled them accross the border.. its our own government but he is smart and always blames the mexican and people are so stupid to believe .. common its logic if the drugs trafficking hasnt stopped even with el chapo capture what makes them think its goin to stop getting all the drugs lords.. USA government buys the drugs they make profit its just that they want all the profit . They dont want it to go to the mexican leaders of the cartel

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    1. Is there any actual docs that confirm the US govt buys drugs or is it a conspiracy theory?

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    2. Sounds more like conspiracy theory. It's true that the US govt is corrupt in many, many ways such as choosing sides in the drug war and turning a blind eye to the criminal activities of their favored groups and even letting them take advantage of their infrastructure. You can even say that the US govt enjoys the profits that the drug war brings, but I very much doubt that they're directly engaged in the buying and selling aspect of it. Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong.

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  26. Thats what i say is there actual docs or reciept that mexico or cartel send drug to the USA ..

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