Escaped Drug Lord "El Chapo" Intimidates Reality TV Stars, but Not Mexican Mayor
Recently escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is starting to sound as mythic as that master criminal Keyser Söze character from “The Usual Suspects.”
As the National Journal reports, when celebrity real estate magnate turned presidential hopeful Donald Trump decided to visit the border town of Laredo, Texas, he was asked about what he was going to do about threats from “El Chapo.” In an uncharacteristically meek response, Trump, who was very publically threatened by a Twitter account (unverified) identifying itself as the escaped drug lord, said "I don't know anything about that." He later asked the FBI to investigate, according to ABC.
Trump is not the only usually brash TV personality to back down around “El Chapo.” The typically unfazed Duane “Dog the Bounty Hunter” Chapman, recently spoke with FOX411 about “El Chapo” and said the kingpin “probably would be out of my league.”
“In order to take him down, number one, you better have a fully automatic weapon. With my weapon, you have to get really close to him — and you couldn’t get that close to him because he probably has five or six guys with him at all times,” qualified the reality TV star.
People living in Guzmán’s poverty stricken hometown of Badiraguato, on the other hand, are used to speaking about the drug lord’s kindness. "El Chapo" enjoys a kind of reputation for generosity in the small mountain community.
But Mario Valenzuela, the mayor of the Mexican town, is not buying it.
"I don't see a single building producing jobs, a single piece of public works, a soccer field, a sewer, a school, water systems, a clinic or hospital, not a single one that you can say was built by drug traffickers or their money," the Mayor told the Associated Press. Valenzuela insisted that if Guzmán or his cartel had actually invested anything in their hometown, things would look different. “They would have paved roads or drainage systems, but they don't."
The mayor feels that, though "El Chapo" may not be giving a whole lot back to the community, at least, unlike the New Generation Jalisco cartel, "He doesn't shoot it out with the government."
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