Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman: Prison escapee to billionaire

• Name : Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman

• Age : 56; Born April 4, 1957

• Home : Since slipping out of prison in 2001 in a laundry truck, he was rumored to live everywhere from Argentina to Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its “Golden Triangle,” a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua. He was reported to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles.

• Occupation : Reputed head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which controls much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border. Was believed to be the world’s richest and most powerful drug trafficker. Over the years, his fortune grew to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the “World’s Most Powerful People.”

• Indictments: Guzman had a $7 million bounty on his head. A U.S. federal indictment unsealed in San Diego in 1995 charged Guzman and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import more than eight tons of cocaine and money laundering. He has been indicted by federal authorities in the United States several times more since 1996 on charges that he and others conspired to smuggle “multi-ton quantities” of cocaine into the U.S. and used violence, including murder, kidnapping and torture to keep the smuggling operation running. He’s also accused of conspiring to smuggle heroin into the United States and money laundering.

Associated Press