The Sinaloa Cartel has owned and operated Chicago’s primary illegal drug franchise for decades.
With drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in the Colorado Supermax prison, two of his sons run the criminal organization from Mexico while under indictment here in Chicago. And now, the government is offering a total of $20 million in reward money for both of them.
From the firefight a decade ago when billionaire drug dealer El Chapo was arrested, his Sinaloa succession plan went into play.
Chapo’s four sons — known as the “Chapitos” — took the reins. But two of them have since landed in federal custody in Chicago, leaving sons Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar in charge.
And now the U.S. government has just doubled the bounty on Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar from $5 million to $10 million.
“Obviously it’s a family run criminal organization. And when you look at it, he’s at the top right now,” said Mike Gannon, former assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Division.
Gannon says both Chapitos have $10-million price tags on their heads.
A fitting $20 million total bounty for drug lord-brothers who flash their own wealth on social media, from jewels and guns to exotic cars and big houses.
“Whether they’re flashing assets in your face, at the end of the day, it’s kind of hard to enjoy these assets when you end up in a jail cell,” said Gannon.
Jail is where prosecutors want top Sinaloa operatives to land. Five were charged Tuesday in Southern California with smuggling untraceable ghost guns and trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamines.
“Whether it’s drugs. Whether it’s guns. Whether its trafficking of people, at the end of the day, they’re ruthless, vicious people that don’t care who’s lives they affect,” said Gannon, who retired from DEA after more than 25 years with the agency chasing cartel operatives. “They’re going to do anything they can to make a buck.”
Gannon says the new Mexican president has been more helpful to U.S. counter-cartel efforts than the previous administration there–if only judging by the number of drug traffickers being extradited to the U.S.
The added reward money is something Gannon believes may help El Chapo’s sons to justice in the United States by enticing someone close to them to do the right thing, for the right price.
