El Chapo Net Worth: Here's How the Sinaloa Cartel Boss Became One of the World's Richest Men

Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, also known as "El Chapo," is considered to be one of the wealthiest drug traffickers in the world.

According to The Sun, El Chapo headed the Sinaloa Cartel after his humble beginnings in a poor farming family at Badiraguato municipality, an impoverished and remote area in Mexico's Sinaloa state.

Aside from El Chapo, which means "shorty" in English, the 64-year-old drug kingpin has also earned the nickname "El Rapido" for his speed in transporting drugs from Mexico to America.

During his 13-year reign as the leader of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, El Chapo transformed his business from a modest marijuana operation into one of the wealthiest and most powerful criminal organizations in the world, whether legal or otherwise.

Under his guidance, the Sinaloa cartel developed unconventional smuggling techniques and strategies, like utilizing tunnels and hiding drugs in chili pepper cans and fire extinguishers.

He also became an expert at organizing airplanes, boats, trains, and even trucks to carry shipments of drugs into the United States and Europe.

El Chapo was among the people who established the Sinaloa Cartel from the remnants of the Guadalajara Cartel after its leader Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested in 1989.

He ran logistics for the Guadalajara and Sinaloa Cartels, with the drugs mainly produced in Colombia and delivered to Mexico.

Under El Chapo's leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel started manufacturing methamphetamine within Mexico in the late 80s and early 90s. Aside from meth and marijuana, the cartel also smuggled vast quantities of heroin.

El Chapo Net Worth 2022

According to Celebrity Net Worth, El Chapo had a net worth of $1 billion. But CA Knowledge reported that the net worth of the Mexican drug kingpin could reach $3 billion.

After his arrest, the Mexican government managed to confiscate six of El Chapo's homes. The government sold three of those at an auction in November 2019.

The homes were sold for $107,530, $64,589, and $55,725, failing to meet the government's expectation to sell each home for $1 million or more.

Authorities noted that El Chapo has more than $400 million in cash reserves, stacked in various parts of Mexico, as reported by CA Knowledge.

At the peak of his drug empire between 2005 and 2011, the Mexican drug kingpin exceeded $26 billion in his net worth, which placed him on the list of the Top 20 wealthiest people on the planet.

The Sinaloa Cartel boss also had over $15 billion worth of drugs stockpiled during this period, ready to be shipped to the United States.

Currently, El Chapo's sons are reportedly overseeing more than 50 safe houses across Mexico, with more than $400 million in cash believed to be hidden there.

According to reports, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has frozen different bank accounts linked to Sinaloa Cartel. More than $700 million in cash deposits in those accounts were reportedly taken back to the U.S.

The Case of Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo

The infamous Sinaloa Cartel boss is currently imprisoned in one of the most secure prisons in the U.S. El Chapo was first arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and extradited to Mexico, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking.

But in 2001, the Mexican drug kingpin escaped from prison. He was apprehended again in 2014 in Sinaloa and again escaped from prison through a tunnel the following year.

In January 2016, Mexican officials announced that El Chapo has been captured again. He was extradited to the U.S. the following year.

El Chapo was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in the ADX Florence "supermax" prison in Colorado after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.

But even when he's behind bars, the Sinaloa Cartel remained one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking syndicates. The Mexican drug cartel has been known for carrying out assassinations, murders, and torture to protect its turf.

The Sinaloa Cartel seems to have taken its style from Colombia's Cali Cartel by creating strong connections to Mexico's political and economic elite. It has also successfully penetrated government and security forces in areas where the cartel operates.

InsightCrime reported that the cartel's most powerful contacts have traditionally been in the National Action Party. Some sources claimed that the party helped account for the cartel's growth in the last decade.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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