Sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electricity and hot chilies to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed to tigers, dead or alive,” according to a recently released indictment. US Department of Justice.
Three of Guzmán’s sons – Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, known as the Chapitos or Little Chapos – were charged. 28 indicted Sinaloa cartel members In a massive fentanyl-trafficking investigation announced last week.
While the DOJ accused the members of “running the world’s largest, most violent and most expansive fentanyl trafficking operation,” it also detailed the brutal methods of torture and execution used by the cartel to increase power and intimidate enemies.
According to the indictment, rival drug traffickers, law enforcement officials and members loyal to other cartel factions were among those interrogated by Chapitos in Novolato, Sinaloa, on the ranch owned by Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar.
“Once information was obtained by these captives, usually through torture, these individuals were killed – either by Chapitos himself or at the behest – and the bodies were dumped all over the area. Many of these victims were shot, others were fed or fed alive to tigers.” Belonged to Evan and Alfredo, the complaint said.
In another tantalizing twist, federal prosecutors allege that two of El Chapo’s sons were involved in the arrest and killing of Mexican federal law enforcement officers in 2017. One officer was interrogated and killed and another was tortured in front of El Chapo’s sons. By the cartel’s hitmen, known as “ninnies”.
“For approximately two hours, Nini’s members tortured Victim-5 by inserting a corkscrew into Victim-5’s muscles, ripping from his muscles and placing hot chills on his open wounds and nose” before shooting and killing Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, the indictment alleges. Federal prosecutors said the victim and his fellow slain officer were then dumped near a motel on a highway near the ranch.
The indictment alleges that El Chapo’s sons used electrocution and waterboarding to torture members of rival drug cartels as well as associates who refused to pay debts. Federal officials say the Chapitos also tested the potency of fentanyl produced on their inmates.
Of the three accused Chapitos, only Ovidio Guzmán López was caught. He was arrested in Sinaloa, the capital of Culiacan, in January.
Martin Urista/AP
“Death and destruction are central to their entire operation,” DEA chief Ann Milgram Milgram said Friday, adding that the Chapitos and the global network they operate “are a network that fuels violence and death on both sides of the border.”
The founder of the Sinaloa cartel, known as El Chapo, is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado. Convicted in 2019 Charges include drug trafficking, money laundering and arms-related crimes.
In January, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message To President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, he complained that he was suffering “mental suffering” in prison.
Trending news
Stephen Smith