Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, A.K.A. El Mecho are two of the most powerful Mexican drug lords of recent times. Both from poor backgrounds, they have made billions smuggling cocaine, heroin, marijuana and meth into the United States.
El Mencho heads the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, while Guzman’s was the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel before his arrest in 2016. Currently imprisoned in America, Guzman’s cartel is disintegrating under infighting and external incursions of its territories by rival cartels, while Mencho’s is currently said to be the biggest in Mexico right now.
Delving a bit into their history, the two men have indirectly worked together in the past, with El Mencho, working with the Sinaloa Cartel branch in Jalisco, when it was headed by Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel. Although Guzman at one time earned an almost a mythical status in Mexico, his world came crashing down after the Chicago twins, Margarito and Pedro Flores, flipped on him, leading to his extradition.
They undertook extensive drug smuggling operations for him and Ismael Zambada Garcia “El Mayo” in America, and were at one time bringing in at least 400 kilograms of cocaine per week. They helped the Sinaloa Cartel to become the unrivaled drug supplier in the United States.
Spouses of twins who turned on ‘ #ElChapo ‘ tell story of ‘Cartel Wives’ #StoolPigeons https://t.co/8ZnzT0ebqO
— gregory_a_k (@gregory_a_k) June 17, 2017
On why the twins were so unique, they were able to make more connections in the United States than anyone else. They had an understanding of the American culture and knew how to deal with American wholesalers in Chicago, who were in most cases black and had limited respect for Mexican dealers. The African American dealers also didn’t like dealing with the Mexicans as most didn’t speak fluent English.
By bridging such gaps, they grew their drug smuggling networks extensively and were responsible for trafficking about 71 tons of coke into the country. This is as reported by ABC Chicago . As such, when the Mexican AFI officers captured the twins in Mexico to hand them over to the Feds, the three biggest drug lords in Mexico, Guzman, El Mayo, and Beltran Leyva Cartel’s Vicente came together to stop the move.
According to a revelation by their wives in their new book Cartel Wives: A True Story of Deadly Decisions, Steadfast Love, and Bringing Down El Chapo. They reportedly offered to send 5 million dollars in two and a half hours to have them set free.
#México Aseguran que ahora van por ‘El Mencho’ ¿ya lo localizaron? https://t.co/KRg7TSdRrG #Noticias pic.twitter.com/iLk6L8l3Aj
— Debate (@ELDEBATE) August 27, 2017
But when this didn’t work, “El Mencho” who was at the time in charge of the Puerto Vallarta plaza was sent in to rescue them with hundreds of armed men. They were able to intercept the vehicle carrying the twins and save them, just minutes before the American authorities arrived. This is as reported by the Daily Beast .
[Featured Image by Moises Castillo/AP Images]
