According to an indictment recently released by the United States Justice Department, the sons of famed Mexican drug lord El Chapo fed their victims, dead or alive, to pet tigers. The indictment blames El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel for the unprecedented influx of fentanyl into the United States over the last eight years, as well as the resulting violence and deaths on both sides of the border.
The sons are known collectively as the Chapitos or little Chapos
With El Chapo presently serving a life term in prison, the Sinaloa cartel is led in part by El Chapo’s sons, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jes Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, and the imprisoned Ovidio Guzman Lopez. The sons are known collectively as the Chapitos or little Chapos. According to the Justice Department’s indictment, the Chapitos used sicarios (armed) enforcers, as well as corruption and bribe payments, to protect and enhance the cartel’s fentanyl trafficking enterprise.
“The Chapitos’ sicarios comprise a security apparatus built to commit acts of violence in order to protect the Chapitos’ operation and its leaders, territory, labs, trafficking routes and money.” The indictment stated that the cartel’s sicarios routinely utilized military-grade weaponry to commit crimes including murder, torture, and kidnapping. They have shot and killed Mexican government officials, tortured rival drug traffickers, including electrocution, and even fed some of their victims to Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jes Alfredo Guzmán Salazar’s tigers.
The Justice Department’s revelations came after El Chapo’s kids were among 28 people indicted in a fentanyl probe launched by the US
El Chapo’s sons also used their security apparatus to demolish unsupportive businesses, capture contested territory, intimidate civilians, and attack law enforcement. “This relentless violence led to rampant bloodshed and taken the lives of untold people in Mexico and the United States,” the indictment added.
The Justice Department’s revelations came after El Chapo’s kids were among 28 people indicted in a fentanyl probe launched by the US. According to the Justice Department, the four sons, particularly Ovidio, “pioneered” the influx of fentanyl into the United States beginning in 2014, earning millions for the northern Mexico-based organization. EL Chapo’s kids had previously been indicted on US drug charges, and Washington has already requested that Ovidio be extradited from Mexico following his arrest there in January.