LIMA, Peru —El Chapo killed—Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman the ‘Most-wanted'
drug lord is suspected to be dead after a shootout in Guatemala near the
Mexican border.
The authorities said Friday they are investigating the
possibility a man killed in the shootout was 58-year-old Guzman, but later
backtracked, saying they hadn't yet located a body or even confirmed there was
a shootout, the Associated Press reported.
If confirmed, the death of Guzman could be the
highest-profile blow to the international cocaine trade since Colombian drug
kingpin Pablo Escobar died in a hail of bullets in a shootout with security
forces in Medellin in 1992.
As head of the ruthless Sinaloa cartel, Guzman, said to have
amassed a personal fortune of $1 billion, is thought to be responsible for the
deaths of thousands, mainly in Mexico but also in the US and elsewhere in Latin
America.
Forbes recently him the world’s 63rd most-powerful person
and is widely viewed as the Western Hemisphere’s most-wanted criminal.
Indeed, many analysts now believe Guzman is a more powerful
and dangerous operator than Escobar ever was.
That is in part because under his ruthless leadership the
Sinaloa cartel has achieved what experts call “vertical integration” of the
cocaine supply chain, with its tentacles stretching from the remote Andean
regions where coca is grown into the heart of the world’s largest cocaine
market — the United States.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration has had a $5 million
reward for information leading to Guzman’s arrest for more than eight years.
And, earlier this month, Chicago even officially named the
elusive 5-foot-6-inch druglord, whose “El Chapo” nickname is Mexican slang for
“shorty,” public enemy No. 1. It's the first time in eight decades, since Al
Capone terrorized the Windy City, that authorities there have officially used
that term.
Nevertheless, if one of the corpses at the scene of the
shootout in Guatemala’s jungle region of Peten does turn out to be Guzman, it's
unlikely to stop the flow of cocaine into the US any more than the death of
Escobar did.
Behind Guzman, crime analysts say, is a long queue of
brutal, highly ambitious lieutenants eager to take their turn at the top of the
Sinaloa cartel.
And most experts believe as long as demand for cocaine
remains strong in the US, Europe, Asia and increasingly in Latin America,
particularly Mexico and Brazil, the trafficking is unlikely to stop.
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