Nogales, Arizona – You’ll find them in Arizona’s most remote areas, brandishing firearms and bullet-proof vests. They are on the hunt for weapons traffickers or drug smugglers. But they’re not law enforcement officers.

They are bandit crews - criminals - who will do anything to make a profit, which often means murdering and stealing from other criminals in the desert.

“Mexican drug smuggling organizations sometimes use bandit crews to police their desert smuggling routes and rob from competitors,” said Kevin Kelly, assistant special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Nogales, Ariz.

The prevalence in bandit crews has resulted in a surge of violence throughout the Southwest corridor. Two men were murdered in the desert near Eloy, Ariz., and three individuals were allegedly robbed and held against their will while their families were extorted for money. In an effort to curb this trend, HSI and the U.S. Border Patrol have partnered to investigate bandit crews and disable their operations. Law enforcement authorities are currently investigating the murders, and a criminal complaint has been filed in Arizona federal court against an alleged bandit.

As a direct result of the HSI and U.S. Border Patrol partnership, two individuals were recently sentenced to five years in federal prison. Border Patrol agents arrested them in the mountains of southern Arizona in June after they were spotted carrying a loaded AK-47 assault rifle and bullet proof vest. The men admitted that they intended to rob groups of drug smugglers carrying backpacks of marijuana through the Arizona desert.

“Thanks to great teamwork with our Border Patrol partners and federal prosecutors, we were able to take these two bandits out of the desert and put them in prison,” said Kelly.

CAUTION

There may be graphic photographs that accompany some articles in the body of this report. It is not our intention to sensationalize. We include these photos in order to give to you, the American public, a clearer understanding of the seriousness of the situation in Mexico and Central America.

**Asterisk denotes death involving a police officer or a member of the military serving in that capacity. Some items may be from notirex.com, lapoliciaca.com or historiasdelnarco.com.  There are too many killings to list all of them.

MEXICO CITY

The Canadian RCMP fear that the murder of Thomas Grigsby, a Canadian drug trafficker from Vancouver, BC in Mexico may trigger a gang war between several gangs. Two other Canadian traffickers were found dead in Puerto Vallarta last year. In January, a Montreal policeman was beaten in Playa el Carmen for trying to take a photo of a Hells Angel from Quebec, Canada.

CULIACAN, SINALOA

The month of April closed with 143 executed, making a year’s total of 511 here only.

SAN LUIS POTOSI

Seven executed in a 24 hour period. Of note is that several of these don’t seem to be related to organized crime but rather personal quarrels and robbery.

ARTEAGA, COAHUILA

Narco graves just located have revealed the naked and burned bodies of 3 women, aged between 20 and 30 years. No other information was released.

ZAPOPAN, JALISCO*

A 23 year old municipal police officer was kidnapped from his home. The body of Daniel Máximo Flores was found 2 days later.

NUEVO LEÓN

About 4 am Tuesday, gunmen attacked the headquarters of the municipal police in Linares with heavy weapons, but without injuring anyone. In Palomas, municipal police responded to a report of a robbery at a business. While speaking with employees there, they came under fire from gunmen. One officer was grazed, and another was struck in the chest and is in serious condition at a local hospital.

CULIACAN, SINALOA

The body of a man, bound hand and foot, was dumped under a bridge and then burned. His age was estimated to be under 25.

BOCA DEL RIO, VERACRUZ

Two journalist’s bodies were found by authorities Thursday May 3rd, dismembered and within 4 bags. Both had been tortured before being butchered.

________________

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Four people in a truck packed with suspected illegal immigrants died on Wednesday in Arizona after the sport utility vehicle carrying them fled border patrol agents, veered off a road and smashed through a wall, police said.

Seven other people were injured when the Dodge Durango loaded with 11 people hurtled off a street in Casa Grande, some 45 miles south of Phoenix, at around 1 a.m. It smashed through a solid wall before coming to rest in a yard, a spokesman for Casa Grande Police Department said.

“The vehicle attempted to turn … (It) went airborne and crashed through a cinder block wall and appeared to hit a couple of small trees and came to a rest,” police spokesman Thomas Anderson said.

“At least one occupant was ejected from the vehicle … They could not have all been restrained because the vehicle doesn’t have that many restraints, even if they used them, so it was a pretty horrific accident scene,” he added.

Casa Grande, a city of nearly 50,000 people about 80 miles north of the Mexico border, straddles a clandestine route for smugglers ferrying illegal immigrants to the metropolitan Phoenix area.

Minutes before the smash, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol alerted Casa Grande police that agents were following two vehicles, one a suspected “load vehicle,” in the desert a few miles south of the city.

“When they attempted to stop one of the vehicles, the second vehicle drove north toward Casa Grande … and ultimately crashed into a yard,” Anderson said.

Three people were found dead at the scene. Six others were taken to local hospitals where one later died, Anderson said. The condition of the others was not immediately known.

The driver of the Durango was identified as a woman from the nearby town of Eloy. The other 10 occupants were suspected illegal immigrants, although their citizenship was not immediately known, he added.

Human smugglers, known as “coyotes,” frequently overload vehicles with illegal immigrants to spirit them from Mexican border areas to cities further inland, from where they move them on to destinations throughout the United States.

Accidents are common. Earlier this month, nine people died when a minivan crammed with illegal immigrants rolled over in south Texas. The driver, a 15-year-old boy, was charged with nine counts of murder.

In 2008, nine people were killed when a sports utility vehicle packed with suspected illegal immigrants rolled on a desert highway a few miles south of Phoenix.

Raven aerostat

A week-long demonstration of a powerful camera and sensor package, which captured video of miles of borderland while hovering thousands of feet above the ground for hours, helped border agents make almost 100 arrests near Nogales, AZ, in late March.

Logos Technologies and L-3 WESCAM said they successfully showcased a package of optical and sensor capabilities mounted on a 75-foot Raven aerostat during the DHS trial in late March.

Logos provided its Kestrel day/night wide-area persistent surveillance system during the DHS demonstration in the area on March 29. L-3 WESCAM provided an electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) imaging system.

The test, said L-3 WESCAM and Logos, was funded by DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate, and allowed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to evaluate the equipment for border security use.  The aerostat  –  a Raven Aerostar  –  suspended the sensors and optical equipment 2,000 feet above the desert floor. The systems, said L-3 Wescam, provided connectivity to a ground control center and the ability to view acquired surveillance footage from ground stations.

Logos said it used the same sensor systems that have been deployed in Afghanistan to protect U.S. troops there. In the Nogales demonstration, the company said its Kestrel system scanned a city-sized area helping authorities apprehend 30 suspects on the first night of the demonstration and a total of 80 arrests over the course of the week.

According to Logos, the Kestrel system could also rewind through stored imagery, allowing operators to track the suspects back to their hideouts and monitor other illegal activities.

L-3 WESCAM said the operation was part of a three member industry team deployed by CBP in exercises to help detect, identify and track illegal activity along the U.S. border. L-3 provided its Flexible Area Surveillance Technology (FAST). The Raven aerostat also held a WESCAM electro optical and infrared (EO/IR) imaging system.

“FAST is a fully integrated deployable 24/7 persistent surveillance aerostat solution available now for rapid fielding,” said Paul Jennison, vice president of government sales and business development for L-3 WESCAM. “This successful demonstration fully showcased the solution’s overall versatility and intelligence-gathering capabilities for border missions.”

Joaquín Guzmán Loera

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Guzmán and the second or maternal family name is Loera.

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera
“El Chapo Guzmán”
Born	Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera April 4, 1957 (age 55)[1] La Tuna, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico
Other names	“El Chapo” Guzmán[2]
Occupation	Drug Lord
Known for	Sinaloa Cartel drug lord
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	75 kg (170 lb)
Predecessor	Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
Spouse	Emma Coronel Aispuro
Partner	Ismael Zambada Garcia, Ignacio Coronel-Villareal and Juan José Esparragoza Moreno
Children	César, Iván Archivaldo, Jesús Alfredo, Joaquín, Ovidio, Griselda Guadalupe, Édgar(†)
Notes Rewards of $5 million USD and $2 million USD are offered respectively, by the United States[1][3] and Mexico[4] for information leading to his capture.

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera (b. April 4, 1957) is a fugitive Mexican drug lord who heads the world’s largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, an organization named after the Mexican Pacific coast state of Sinaloa where it was initially formed. Known as “El Chapo Guzmán” (“Shorty Guzmán“) for his 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) stature, he became Mexico’s top drug kingpin in 2003 after the arrest of his rival Osiel Cárdenas of the Gulf Cartel, and is now considered “The most powerful drug trafficker in the world,” by the United States Department of the Treasury.

Guzmán Loera has been ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful people in the world every year since 2009; ranking 41st, 60th and 55th respectively.^[ He was also listed by Forbes as the 10th richest man in Mexico (1,140th in the world) in 2011. Forbes also calls him the "biggest druglord of all time", and the DEA strongly believes he has surpassed the influence and reach of Pablo Escobar, and now considers him "the godfather of the drug world."

Guzman Loera's Sinaloa Cartel smuggles multi-ton cocaine shipments from Colombia through Mexico to the United States and has distribution cells throughout the U.S. The organization has also been involved in the production, smuggling and distribution of Mexican methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin. The U.S. offers a $5 million USD reward for information leading to his capture. The Mexican government offers a reward of $30 million pesos for such information.

Guzmán was born on April 4, 1957 to a poor family in the rancho of La Tuna near Badiraguato, where he sold oranges as a child. He had two sisters: Armida and Bernarda; and had 4 brothers: Miguel Ángel, Aureliano, Arturo and Emilio. Little is known about Guzmán's early years. His father was supposedly a cattle rancher, as were most in the area; it is believed, however, that he also grew opium poppy. Guzmán's father had connections to higher-ups in the Sinaloan capital of Culiacán through Pedro Avilés Pérez. Avilés was a key player in the Sinaloa drug business, seen as a pioneer for finding new methods of transporting the rural produce to urban areas for shipment by way of airplanes. He is reportedly the first to use airplanes to smuggle cocaine to the United States. By the time Guzmán was in his 20s, his connection to Avilés would be his window of opportunity to start in the drug business and make his fortune. In the late 1970s, Héctor "El Güero" Luis Palma Salazar gave Guzmán his first big break. El Güero placed him in charge of transporting drugs from the Sierra to the cities and border and overseeing shipments. He was ambitious and pressed his bosses to increase the quantities of drugs being moved north.^[2]

In the early 1980s, Guzmán was introduced to Miguel “El Padrino” Ángel Félix Gallardo. Gallardo put him in charge of logistics – effectively coordinating airplane flights, boat arrivals and trucks coming from Colombia into Mexico. El Güero still controlled deliveries to clients in the United States, but Guzmán would soon work directly for El Padrino himself. Although early on Guzmán lived in Guadalajara, as did Gallardo, his command and control center was actually located in Agua Prieta, Sonora. After Félix Gallardo’s capture, Guzmán took control of the entire Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán is wanted by the governments of Mexico and the United States and by INTERPOL; so far he has evaded operations to capture him.

Methamphetamine

After the fall of the Amezcua brothers, founders of the Colima Cartel, in 1998 on methamphetamine trafficking charges, there was a need for leadership throughout Mexico to coordinate methamphetamine shipments north. Guzmán saw an opportunity and seized on it. Easily arranging precursor shipments, Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García (“El Mayo”) made use of their previous contacts on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Importantly, for the first time the Colombians would not have to be paid – they simply joined methamphetamine with cocaine shipments. This fact meant no additional money needed to go out for planes, pilots, boats, and bribes; they used the existing infrastructure to pipeline the new product. Up until this point, the Sinaloa Cartel had been a joint venture between Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García; the methamphetamine business would be Guzmán’s alone. He cultivated his own ties to China, Thailand and India to import the necessary precursor chemicals. Throughout the mountains of the states of Sinaloa, Durango, Jalisco, Michoacán and Nayarit, Guzmán constructed large methamphetamine laboratories and rapidly expanded his organization.

His habit of moving from place to place allowed him to nurture contacts throughout the country. He was now operating in 17 out of 31 Mexican states. With his business expanding, he placed his trusted friend Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal in charge of methamphetamine production; this way Guzmán could continue being the boss of bosses. Coronel Villarreal proved so reliable in the Guzmán business, he became known as ‘Crystal King’.

Arrest and escape

Guzmán was captured in Guatemala on June 9, 1993 and extradited to Mexico and sentenced to 20 years, 9 months in prison for drug trafficking, criminal association and bribery charges. He was jailed in the maximum security La Palma (now Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 or ‘Altiplano’) prison. On November 22, 1995, he was transferred to the Puente Grande maximum security prison in Jalisco, Mexico, after being convicted of three crimes: possession of firearms, drug trafficking, and the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo (the charge would later be dismissed by another judge). He had been tried and sentenced inside the federal prison on the outskirts of Almoloya de Juárez, Mexico State.

The police say Guzmán carefully masterminded his escape plan, wielding influence over almost everyone in the prison, including the facility’s director. He allegedly had the prison guards on his payroll, smuggled contraband into the prison and received preferential treatment from the staff. In addition to the prison-employee accomplices, police in Jalisco were paid off to ensure he had at least 24 hours to get out of the state and stay ahead of the military manhunt. The story told to the guards being bribed was that Joaquín Guzmán was smuggling gold out of the prison, ostensibly extracted from rock at the inmate workshop. The escape allegedly cost Joaquín $2.5 million.^[2][19]

After a ruling by the Supreme Court of Mexico made it easier for extradition to occur between Mexico and the United States, Guzmán bribed several guards to aid his escape. On January 19, 2001, Francisco “El Chito” Camberos Rivera, a prison guard, opened Guzman’s electronically operated cell door, where Guzmán got in a laundry cart that Camberos rolled through several doors and eventually out the front door. Guzmán was then transported in the trunk of a car driven by Camberos out of the town. At a gas station Camberos went inside, but when he came back Guzmán was gone on foot into the night. According to officials, seventy-eight people have been implicated in his escape plan.^[

Mexican Cartel Wars

Main article: Mexican Drug War

Since his escape from prison, he had been wanting to take over the Ciudad Juárez crossing points, which are under control of the Carrillo Fuentes family of the Juárez Cartel. Despite high mistrust between the two organizations, the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels had an alliance at the time. He convened a meeting in Monterrey with Ismael Zambada Garcia ("El Mayo"), Juan José Esparragoza Moreno ("El Azul") and one of the Beltrán Leyva brothers and they discussed killing Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, who was in charge of the Juárez Cartel. On September 11, 2004, Rodolfo, his wife, and two young children were visiting a Culiacán shopping mall. While leaving the mall, escorted by police commander Pedro Pérez López, the family was ambushed by members of Los Negros, assassins for the Sinaloa Cartel. Rodolfo and his wife were killed, the policeman survived.

This now meant the plaza would no longer be controlled only by the Carrillo Fuentes family. Instead, the city found itself the front line in a country-wide drug war and would see homicides skyrocket as rival cartels fought for control. With this act, Guzmán was the first to break the nonaggression 'pact' the major cartels had agreed to, setting in motion the fighting between cartels for drug routes that has claimed more than 50,000 lives since December 2006.

Break with the Beltrán Leyva Cartel

Flores brothers, leaders of a lucrative cell in Chicago

Several factors influenced the break between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltrán Leyva brothers. The arrest of Guzmán's lieutenant, Alfredo Beltrán Leyva (a.k.a.: El Mochomo) in January 2008 was one incident, as Guzmán was believed to have given up El Mochomo for various reasons. In addition to this, Guzmán had been voicing concerns with Alfredo Beltrán's lifestyle and high-profile actions for some time before his arrest. The Beltrán Leyva brothers ordered the assassination of Guzmán's son, Édgar Guzmán Lopez, on May 8, 2008 in Culiacán; causing massive retaliation from Guzmán. They were also fighting over the allegiance of the Flores brothers, Margarito and Pedro, leaders of a major, highly lucrative cell in Chicago that distributed over two tons of cocaine every month. The Mexican military claim that Guzmán and the Beltrán Leyva brothers were at odds over Guzmán's relationship with the Valencia brothers in Michoacán.

Upon Alfredo Beltrán's arrest – purportedly with Guzmán's help – a formal "war" was declared. An attempt on Vicente "El Vincentillo" Zambada Niebla's life was made just hours after the declaration. Dozens of killings followed in retaliation for the attempt on his life. On May 8, 2008, with the killing of Guzmán's son Edgar, it all erupted. For the rest of May 2008 alone, there were over 116 people murdered in Culiacán, 26 of whom were policemen. In June 2008, over 128 were killed; in July, 143 were slain. General Sandoval ordered another 2,000 troops to the area, but it failed to stop the war. The wave of violence spread to other cities like Guamúchil, Guasave and Mazatlán.

Whether Guzmán was responsible for Alfredo Beltrán's arrest is not known. However, the Beltrán Leyva brothers were doing some double-dealing of their own. Arturo Beltrán and Alfredo Beltrán had met with top members of Los Zetas in Cuernavaca. There they agreed to form an alliance to fill the power vacuum. They wouldn't necessarily go after the main strongholds, such as the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartel; instead they sought control of southern states like Guerrero (where the Beltrán Leyva's already had a big stake), Oaxaca, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo. They also worked their way into the center of the country, where no single group had control.

The split was officially recognized by the U.S. government on May 30, 2008. On that day they recognized the Beltrán Leyva brothers as leaders of their own 'cartel'. President Bush designated Marcos Arturo Beltrán Leyva and the Beltrán Leyva Organization as subject to sanction under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act ("Kingpin Act").

Public appearances

Nuevo Laredo appearance

In 2005 on a Saturday evening, Guzmán reportedly strolled into a restaurant in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas with several of his bodyguards. After taking his seat, his henchmen locked the doors of the restaurant, collected the cell phones of approximately thirty diners and instructed them to not be alarmed. The gangsters then ate their meal and left – paying for everyone else in the restaurant.

Culiacán appearance

Later that year, Guzmán was reportedly seen in Culiacán, Sinaloa, repeating his exploit at a restaurant. According to a witness, in November 2005 Guzmán entered the restaurant in Culiacán with fifteen of his bodyguards, all of them carrying AK-47s. The restaurant was known as 'Las Palmas,' a lime-green eatery with an ersatz tile roof on a busy street.A man in the restaurant told those present the following:

"Gentlemen, please. Give me a moment of your time. A man is going to come in, the boss. We will ask you to remain in your seats; the doors will be closed and nobody is allowed to leave. You will also not be allowed to use your cellulars. Do not worry; if you do everything that is asked of you, nothing will happen. Continue eating and don't ask for your check. The boss will pay. Thank you."

The diners reportedly sat still and frightened, as El Chapo walked in through the front door of the restaurant. He walked among the tables, greeting each person there. "Hello, nice to meet you. How are you? I'm Joaquín Guzmán Loera. A pleasure. At your service," he said to all of the diners, as he shook their hands. ^El Chapo then walked to a private salon inside the restaurant, where he ate the house specialties of "beef and and fist-size shrimp." After a couple of hours, the meal ended, and Guzmán fled the scene; his gunmen left moments later. Los Angeles Times reported on this same incident in an article published on November 3, 2008. The newspaper, however, quoted that whether any of his reported exploits actually happened is irrelevant, because these stories of Guzmán's elusiveness have created a mythology around his image, where he is claimed to be "everywhere, and nowhere" at the same time.

Other appearances

According to Milenio news, witnesses have declared to have seen Guzmán-Loera in a restaurant in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo; visting a beach in San Blas, Nayarit; visting a house he allegedly owns in San Pancho, Guanajuato; hiding in the mountains of Durango; eating at a restaurant and paying for costumers in Ciudad Juárez; in his hideout in Michoacán; traveling through Monterrey; and attending the party of a famous businessman in Torreón.

Raids

In the ensuing manhunt, authorities arrested many of Guzmán's associates in the cities of Reynosa, Puebla, Toluca, and Mexico City. The states of Sinaloa and Nayarit would also see a wave of arrests. In the summer of that year, Esteban Quintero Mariscal, a hired killer and cousin of Guzmán's, was arrested and imprisoned in Cefereso No. 1, Mexico's highest-security prison. The following day, El Chito, the prison guard most responsible for helping Guzmán escape, was captured and incarcerated in Mexico City's Reclusorio Preventivo Oriente. On September 7, 2001, authorities raided a stash house in the eastern Mexico City neighborhood of Iztapalapa. Federal agents chased three people fleeing the house all the way to Taxquena in the southern part of the city. Among those arrested was Arturo "El Pollo" Guzman Loera, Guzmán's younger brother. Guzmán reportedly considered suicide following his arrest. Authorities were led to Arturo by information from Quintero Mariscal.

In November 2001, military intelligence pinpointed Guzmán's location to somewhere between the cities of Puebla and Cuernavaca, where they captured Miguel Angel Trillo Hernandez. Trillo had helped Guzmán in the aftermath of his escape from Puente Grande, renting houses so Guzmán could hide in them. They next discovered Guzmán was hiding out on a ranch outside Sante Fe, Nayarit. Mexican military deployed helicopters to close in, but Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada provided his own helicopter to Guzmán to escape in to the Sierra.

Despite the progress made in detaining others in the aftermath of Guzmán's escape, arresting a handful of his top logistics and security men, the huge military and federal police manhunt failed to capture Guzmán himself. Since his escape, he has been Mexico's most wanted man.

On December 20, 2005 the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced a US $5 million reward for information leading to Guzmán's arrest and prosecution.

In March 2008, the Guatemalan government reported that Guzmán's organization may have been tied to a gun battle in their country that left ten gunmen dead. Three days later, the Honduran government reported that they were investigating whether he was hiding out in Honduras.^[33]

On April 18, 2009 in the state of Durango, Roman Catholic Archbishop Héctor Gonzalez announced that the fugitive drug trafficker was “living nearby and everyone knows it except the authorities, who just don’t happen to see him for some reason.” A few days afterwards, two military officers were found dead near a bullet-riddled car in the same area the archbishop claimed Guzmán lived. It is believed that the officers, who were dressed in civilian clothes, were working undercover in the area when they were abducted and executed in the remote village of Cienega de Escobar. A message was left near them: “You’ll never get ‘El Chapo’, not the priests, not the government.”

Reports by Milenio Television mention that Guzmán Loera is protected at all times by a personal mercenary army composed of over 30 armed men, all of them in military uniform, whose only objective is to prevent his capture and death from the Mexican forces.The Mexican authorities “nearly nabbed” Guzmán Loera in a coastal mansion in Los Cabos on February 19, 2012, just a day after Hillary Clinton met with foreign ministers in the same peninsula resort town. The details of how the authorities knew he was there and why El Chapo was not caught have not been released.^[37]

Implications if Guzmán is arrested

According to Los Angeles Times, if Guzmán Loera is arrested by the Mexican authorities before the Mexican general elections of 2012, his capture may serve as a “sweet trophy” for Felipe Calderón, the president of Mexico, and for PAN candidate for the presidency, Josefina Vazquez Mota. His apprehension would mark the “biggest blow against drug cartels” since Calderón launched a military-led offensive against the criminal groups in Mexico on 2006. Analysts say it may also “squelch whispers” that the Mexican government had gone easy on the Sinaloa Cartel and on El Chapo while attacking its rival groups. On the other hand, his capture right before the presidential elections may also trigger theories by skeptics that El Chapo had long been in the government’s hands, “but kept on ice until a politically propitious moment.”

Edgardo Buscaglia, a professor at the ITAM, believes that Guzmán’s capture may also help Barack Obama’s reelection campaign, since there have been suspicions that his government “provided protection” to the Sinaloa Cartel. Eric Olson, from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, considers that Guzmán’s capture may “unleash a bloody wave of violence” between the Sinaloa Cartel leaders and its subgroups for the control of the organization. His capture may also unleash the fury of the Sinaloa cartel and create new criminal organizations.

Family

In 1977 he married Alejandrina María Salazar Hernández, in a small ceremony in the town of Jesús María, Sinaloa. With Alejandrina Guzmán he had three children: César, Iván Archivaldo, and Jesús Alfredo. He set them up in a ranch home in Jesús María. In the mid-1980s Guzmán remarried; this time to Griselda López Pérez, with whom he had four more children: Édgar, Joaquín, Ovidio, and Griselda Guadalupe. Guzmán’s sons would follow him into the drug business.

On February 15, 2005, Guzmán’s son, Iván Archivaldo, was arrested in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. He was sentenced to 5 years in a federal prison, but was released in April 2008 after a Mexican federal judge declared the case was lacking evidence. In June 2005, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested his brother, two nephews and a niece. They also seized nine houses and six vehicles. Some of the arrests took place in U.S. cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Oakland.

In November 2007, Guzmán was married to 18 year-old beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro in Canelas, Durango. In August 2011, Coronel Aispuro, a citizen of the United States, gave birth to twin girls in a L.A. County Hospital.

CASA GRANDE – Agents made a bust in the Arizona desert and it turns out two of the 37 people taken into custody were sex offenders.

Casa Grande station agents came upon a group of 37 border-crossers in the West Desert and determined one of the men was a 31-year-old wanted for rape, violence, duress and menace in San Jose, Calif.

He also had a previous conviction for assault with a deadly weapon. He will be turned over to the United States Marshals Service for extradition.

Another was a 36-year-old man.

He was convicted of sexual assault in Illinois back in 2004.

“Women and children face many dangers at the hands of smugglers who have little regard for their safety”, said Chris Clem, Patrol Agent in Charge of the Casa Grande station. “One of our priorities to combat criminal organizations is to work with our partners to inform and educate migrants about the risk of being victimized when attempting to enter the United States illegally.”