According to U.S. prosecutors, Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman shipped drugs worth $US12.6 billion into the United States over a period of three decades.
Money laundering investigators have signaled that they intend to go after this money and any assets that may have been funded by Chapo’s illegal profits.
But who ends up with any money or assets they seize is a moot point.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is demanding that El Chapo’s money and assets recovered by U.S. authorities that belong to Mexico should be returned.
Some voices in the United States have planted a very different view: Senator Ted Cruz says the money should be used to construct the border wall. (Surprisingly, President Donald Trump has yet to weigh in on the matter.)
A 12-page document prepared by U.S. federal prosecutors outlines the calculation of Guzman’s wealth and the U.S. government’s case for forfeiture.
During his criminal career, Guzman shipped tons of drugs around the world and amassed a huge fortune, with Forbes magazine once placing him as the 701st richest person in the world. Various reports over the years have suggested he once owned a fleet of planes, his own zoo and a string of other luxuries. But after twice escaping from Mexican prisons and becoming the world’s most wanted fugitive, he apparently lived a more frugal lifestyle.
In a 2015 interview with actor Sean Penn, later published in Rolling Stone, Guzman boasted that he “trafficked more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana than anyone else in the world.” By this time however, his domination of the Mexican illegal narcotics market had diminished significantly, and he spent nearly all his time in remote hideaways in the Mexican Sierra.
Attorneys for Guzman say the estimation of their client’s wealth is ridiculous.
Lopez Obrador seems to agree. Speaking at a recent press conference, the president said the kingpin’s wealth has been blown up out of all proportion. “I believe that higher figures were given when there were traffickers of influence with much more money, but there was this assessment for political or advertising reasons,” he said.
Nevertheless, Mexico will seek its fair share of Guzman’s billions. Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard announced recently that he proposed to his U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo the creation of a binational commission to recover Guzman’s assets.
Ebrard admitted that the majority of Guzman’s fortune is probably in the United States.