Did ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Retire From The Sinaloa Cartel Before Being Captured For The Last Time?

Mica for cartelinsider.com

After having starred in two federal maximum security prison escapes, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s days of freedom officially came to an end on January 8, 2016. After this, the former drug trafficker was extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking and other crimes. However, one version suggests that the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was no longer involved in the drug business when he was put behind bars for the third and final time.

The version was released in April 2016, three months after the arrest of the native of Badiraguato, after The Guardian interviewed Rosa Isela Guzmán Ortiz, a woman who identifies herself as ‘El Chapo’s’ firstborn daughter.

Although Guzmán Ortiz was never recognized by Guzmán Loera and does not appear in any journalistic investigation or report from federal authorities – neither from Mexico nor the United States – the 46-year-old woman revealed to the British newspaper that she has evidence of her relationship with the drug trafficker, as well as of the communication they maintained before he was arrested.

“My father is not a criminal. The government is guilty,” he stated in a meeting with journalists in California.

During the conversation, Guzmán Ortiz assured that ‘El Chapo’ was no longer involved in the production and distribution of narcotics when he was arrested by Marines in early 2016. On the contrary, he stated that he lived “humbly” and had decided to leave the business in the hands of one of his sons.

“My father had passed the torch to my brother Iván Archivaldo and was planning to resign and rest,” he declared.

The statement of the supposed daughter of Guzmán Loera and his former teacher María Luisa Ortiz partly coincided with the last interview that ‘El Chapo’ had with the authorities of Mexico, in which he stated that his occupation was agriculture. However, the version was never confirmed.

According to statements from Dámaso López Serrano, alias ‘Mini Lic’, four of ‘El Chapo’s’ sons assumed leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel in 2014, when their father was arrested for the second time.

In an interview with journalist Anabel Hernandez last October, the son of Dámaso López Núñez, ‘El Licenciado’, stated that initially Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo did not want to continue with their father’s business out of fear of being killed by rival criminal organizations.

“They were very scared, so much that they said ‘we want to leave this already’. I was present at that meeting,” declared the ‘Mini Lic’.

According to the old friend and partner of the sons of Guzmán Loera, now known as ‘Los Chapitos’, the plan was to leave the business in the hands of ‘El Licenciado’.

“We had a meeting where they said: well, look how things are, my father didn’t leave us anything, just problems. No money, nothing to work with, the only thing he left were debts and problems,” recalled the now protected witness of the US government.

However, upon realizing the profits that they could obtain, the sons of ‘El Chapo’ decided to continue as leaders of the criminal organization. Later on, they would enter into disputes with López Núñez and even with their father’s main partner, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada.

Currently, they are considered the leaders of the most important faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to the United States. Meanwhile, ‘El Chapo’ remains incarcerated at ADX Florence, a maximum security prison located in Colorado.

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Mica

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