MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced Friday that fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was recaptured six months after he escaped from a maximum security prison.
Responding to what was seen as one of the biggest embarrassments of his administration — Guzman's July 11 escape through a tunnel from Mexico's highest-security prison — Pena Nieto wrote in his Twitter account on Friday: "mission accomplished: we have him."
Guzman is considered the "most powerful drug trafficker in the world" by the United States Treasury. Here's a snapshot of his life of crime (courtesy of Wikipedia):
- Born in either 1954 or 1957 - sources disagree on the date of his birth.
- 1970s - Works for drug lord Héctor "El Güero" Palma by transporting drugs and overseeing shipments.
- 1980s - Introduced to Félix Gallardo, one of the major drug lords in Mexico at that time. Guzman first works as a chauffeur for Gallardo before being put in charge of logistics to coordinate drug shipments from Colombia to Mexico by land, air and sea.
- 1993 - Captured in Guatemala, extradited back to Mexico and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico for murder and drug trafficking.
- 2001 - Escapes from a federal maximum-security prison after bribing prison guards.
- 2003 - Becomes Mexico's top drug kingpin after the arrest of his rival, Osieal Cardenas of the Gulf of Cartel.
- 2011 - Named the 10th richest man in Mexico with a net worth of roughly U.S. $1 billion.
- 2013 - Chicago Crime Commission names Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman "Public Enemy Number One" for the
- influence of his criminal network in Chicago, though there is no evidence Guzman had ever been in that city.
- 2014 - Is arrested by Mexican authorities in Mexico.
- July, 2015 - Escapes from prison for a second time.
- January 8, 2016 - Recaptured at Los Mochis, Sinaloa following a gun battle.
