U.S. and Mexican authorities say the world's most notorious drug trafficker has been captured.
"That's Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel. And he was arrested as part of a joint U.S./Mexico operation." (Via AlJazeera)
Few details have been provided about the capture. According to the Los Angeles Times, Guzman was in a hotel in the city of Mazatlan and no shots were fired.
Guzman made a name for himself in the 1980s, when he worked for Mexico's leading narcotics smuggling operation known as El Padrino. He later smuggled massive quantities of cocaine into the U.S. via a tunnel that led to Arizona. (Via NBC)
The drug lord was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking and bribery charges. But he managed to escape prison in 2001 after bribing guards to wheel him out in a laundry cart. (Via CNN)
But the drug lord didn't stay under the radar after his escape. Guzman got back into the business. Drug wars that he took part in have cost 70,000 lives in Mexico since 2006.
In 2013, Forbes ranked Guzman at 67 on its list of the World's Most Powerful People, writing ...
"The [Sinaloa] cartel is responsible for an estimated 25% of all illegal drugs that enter the U.S. via Mexico. ...This February the city of Chicago branded him the first "Public Enemy No. 1 since Al Capone."
Officials have not revealed where Guzman will be prosecuted.
