Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Loera - Case Study

Introduction

By the time of his arrest in January 2016, Joaquin Guzman, popularly known as 'El Chapo', the most powerful Mexican cartel leader, was the most wanted man in the world. He was responsible, through his Sinaloa Cartel outfit, for eighty percent of the cocaine smuggled and sold in the United States. In Mexico, he was responsible for thousands of homicides caused by street fights between the members of his cartel and rival gangs. An approximation of his wealth by Forbes magazine placed him just shy of the one billion dollars mark (Ahmed, 2016). In this essay, we shall examine the law enforcement operations that led to his arrest, the strategies used in the hunt, and the subsequent prosecution of the case. Finally, the essay shall discuss the reported on the impact of his arrest on the supply of drugs to America or speculate on the same.

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The arrest of Joaquin Guzman was the result of a six-month hunt that began after his highly publicized escape from a Mexican maximum-security prison. According to Capers and Wyatt (2017), the arrest was the result of an operation in which the Marines of Mexico- the country's most elite armed force- and American law enforcement agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Department of Homeland Security, and United States Customs and Enforcement. Like the 2014 arrest before it, the strategies that led to the successful apprehension of the drug lord in 2016 relied heavily on intelligence gathering, with American agents providing the necessary intelligence gathering expertise and the Mexican Marines running point on operations and tracking (Rodriguez, 2015). In the latest capture, El Chapo the task force enlisted with his apprehension was able to arrest him by monitoring his contacts with actors and producers while he was in the process of putting together a biopic about his life (Ahmed, 2016).

According to the statement released by the government, Mexican Marines and a support force of United States DEA and Homeland Security agents stormed a house in Los Mochis after detecting movement a day before his arrest. In the ensuing raid, five accomplices were killed, and Guzman managed to escape into the sewer system as he had done in the 2014 arrest. However, his efforts to escape in a stolen car were foiled by law enforcement officers and he was put into custody.

To examine the law enforcement operations that led to the capture of El Chapo properly, it would be necessary to touch on the 2014 operation. The task force assigned to the mission followed a similar procedure in the arrest, namely tracking the communication signals between various members of the expansive Sinaloa Cartel (Romero, 2017). After identifying senior members of the cartel, law enforcement agents managed to extract highly valuable intelligence from them, ultimately leading to Joaquin's capture. Intelligence, therefore, was a key aspect of the operation that led to the arrest and it involved the gathering of confidential communications between various factions of the cartel that led to Joaquin Guzman (Romero, 2017). With the information at hand, it was easier to triangulate his location and anticipate his movements, and ultimately, arrest him.

Another strategy that was critical to the arrest of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was interdepartmental cooperation between US enforcement agencies in spearheading the effort coupled with a bilateral effort with Mexican authorities. According to Seelke, Beittel, and Liana (2018), the United States was singularly the country that was most severely affected by Guzman's international drug trade. This is because the country is strategically located close to the country and has a large population where the cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine has a ready market. With the Sinaloa cartel fighting for territory with other cartels in the country, Mexico has buckled under what has come to be termed as the 'drug war', not to symbolize the government's fight against drugs, but as a reference to the violence perpetrated between members of rival gangs in Mexican streets (Keefe, 2014). The collaboration between the two countries was as much a matter of convenience as it was an alliance of necessity. The two countries were able to combine forces and confront their shared drug issues by forming a task force that ultimately apprehended Guzman.

After the capture, American district courts immediately started clamoring for the opportunity to try the case. According to Seelke et al. (2018), the embarrassment of Guzman's escape from federal prison in Mexico in 2015 was still fresh in governments on both sides. The United States government was eager to have the drug kingpin extradited to face trial in its more secure prison system, and the Mexican government, while keen to appear capable in dealing with such a high profile trial, recognized too well their previous failures in dealing with Guzman. An extradition agreement was finally reached between the two governments, with the Eastern District of New York receiving the honor of trying Guzman.

Some of the reasons for the trial being held in the United States were that Mexico, with its infantile justice system, could not be depended on to try the case. Rodriguez (2015) states that the situation in Mexico is a catch 22, with the endemic corruption making it impossible to achieve impartiality while prosecuting big cases. In America, it was decided that, for their own safety, the jury enlisted to try the case will be anonymous, partly sequestered, and receive full protection from Witness Protection agents. The Eastern District of New York prosecutor's office also requested for a pretrial detention and no option of bail for the drug overlord, a request that the court ultimately granted (Capers & Wyatt, 2017).

In the aftermath of the arrest and subsequent extradition of Joaquin Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel was left without a kingpin but with its leadership intact for the most part. The restructuring of the cartel allowed for operations to continue almost unperturbed, with the only hindrance to smooth operations being power struggles within the cartel leadership (Romero, 2017. Damaso Lopez, a right-hand deputy of El Chapo's and the leader of the Sinaloa cartel's hit team known as Los Antrax, became embroidered in a fierce power struggle with the captured kingpin's sons. While no official reports have been released on the operational soundness of the cartel after the capture and extradition of its leaders, it is possible that his absence will lead to its ultimate crumbling.

According to Keefe (2014), Guzman was able to run the cartel from behind prison doors in his time in Mexican jails in 1993, 2001, and 2014. The behind bars coordination of the cartel was possible because he was allowed a mobile phone and even prostitutes while incarcerated within the prisons. In maximum-security prisons in the US, the possibility of him running his cartel from the confines of the prisons is slim. Ultimately, the leadership vacuum, power struggles within the cartel, and competition from other cartels will weaken the Sinaloa outfit and drastically impede its reach in the United States and in other countries where it is said to be active. Drug supply in the united states is likely to go down along with its diminished power.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the capture of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was the result of a joint operation by the United States law enforcement agencies and Mexican special forces. Intelligence was a critical component of the operation and involved highly advanced tapping of communication channels. In extraditing the kingpin, Mexico ensured that the subsequent trial would be fair and free from undue external influence. The supply of drugs to the United States and other countries around the world is expected to decrease as disruptions in the cartel's leadership and supply routes diminish its power.

References

Rodriguez, W. (2015). Mexico's Catch-22: How the necessary extradition of drug cartel leaders undermines long-term criminal justice reforms. Boston College International & Comparative Law Review, 38(1), 159-188

Capers, R. L., & Wyatt, A. G. (2017). Memorandum of Law In Support Of Pretrial Detention: United States of America against Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera. New York: Eastern District of New York District Court

Romero, L. G. (2017). El Chapo, story of a kingpin - or why Trump's plan to defeat Mexican cartels is doomed to fail. The Conversation; University of Wollongong, 1(1), 1-7.

Seelke, C. R., Beittel, J. S., & Liana R. W. (2018). "El Chapo" Guzman's Extradition: What's Next for U.S.-Mexican Security Cooperation? Denton: University of North Texas Libraries. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc990706/, accessed April 12, 2018

Keefe, P. R. (2014). The Hunt for El Chapo: How the world's most notorious drug lord was captured. The New Yorker: A Reporter at Large, May 5(2014), 1-20

Ahmed, A. (2016). El Chapo, escaped Mexican drug lord, is recaptured in gun battle. The New York Times. Retrieved online at https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/09/world/americas/El-Chapo-captured-mexico.html on 12th April 2018