There are different theories of how much money Guzmán accumulated, an amount that is surrounded by mystery.
He was one of the world’s most powerful drug traffickers, leader of the largest drug cartel in the Americas and Forbes magazine included him in its list of the richest on the planet in 2012.
But to Joaquín Guzmán Loera, “El Chapo”, the authorities of Mexico and the United States they have not found the fortune that has been said to possess.
The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) recognizes that it has not been easy to find the properties and resources of the capo, currently imprisoned in New York.
“Today the United States still hasn’t found a dollar for ‘El Chapo,'” Attorney Raúl Cervantes recently told Televisa.
“He did not use the financial system from what you can see, we had found very few assets, but the Treasury Department has not found them.”
That does not mean that Guzmán Loera is poor. In a conversation with actor Sean Pean, published in January 2016 by Rolling Stone magazine, the detainee bragged about his businesses.
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“I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anyone in the world,” he told the actor.
“I have a fleet of submarines, planes, trucks and boats.”
“Its not that easy”
The fortune of “El Chapo” has always been surrounded by mystery and there is not even a single figure regarding its amount.
Until 2012 Forbes claimed that The capo’s assets exceeded US $ 1,000 million.
Currently, the prosecutor’s office in New York, where Guzmán is facing trial, intends to confiscate US$14,000 million, the equivalent of the profits that are calculated obtained as leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
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In social networks it is common to find images attributed to the capo’s children aboard yachts or luxury cars. They also often display expensive watches and packages with thousands of dollars.
But at the same time his daughter Rosa Isela Guzmán said that the Mexican government created the version that her father was a millionaire.
In the end, Prosecutor Cervantes acknowledges that the Mexican and United States authorities they do not have the specific data on the wealth of the detainee.
“There is no clear identification of the amount of assets,” he says. The money “has not been found, there are very few assets, it does not use the financial system, it is not that simple”.
Businessman
So, where is Guzmán Loera’s fortune? “He is running around the world,” analyst José Reveles, author of the book “El Chapo. Surrender and betrayal”.
The Sinaloa Cartel is a transnational business, which even sells drugs in Australia and Africa, he recalls.
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With its economic capacity created a complex financial structure to hide his earnings, without counting on Guzmán Loera’s own operational ability.
“He is a businessman who makes decisions with the help of advisers and under specific conditions,” he says.
“The Cartel is a company that has the luxury of moving money anywhere in the world.”
But the full details of the organization money laundering network, and in particular of Guzmán Loera, are not known.
The United States Department of the Treasury, for example, has pointed out agricultural companies, pharmacies, shops and exchange centers linked to family and friends of the capo.
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The businesses are located in states such as Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Guerrero, Quintana Roo and Mexico City, among other places.
But not all profits from drug sales stay in the country, says the public report “First national assessment of risks of money laundering and financing of terrorism in Mexico.”
“It is inaccurate to assume that the income received by organizations dedicated to drug trafficking is, in its entirety, introduced into the Mexican financial system or the country’s economy,” indicates the document from the Mexican authorities.
“There are various techniques to launder resources and transfer funds to other countries. Most organizations subsist due to their adaptability, financial structure and protection network”, indicates the study carried out in 2016 by the Secretaries of Finance and the Interior, the PGR, the Bank of Mexico and the Judicial Power.
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the money trail
Why has the fortune attributed to Joaquín Guzmán not been found?
Part of the problem is that in Mexico it has not been fully documented the way in which the financial structures of organized crime operateAngélica Ortiz, a specialist in money laundering, tells BBC Mundo.
One way to know it is to study the resolutions of the judges in the cases for this crime.
“In order to know in Mexico how the organization of ‘El Chapo’ and also others laundered the money, first they would have to see exactly what evidence the sentences were issued with,” he explains.
“It is necessary that the authorities really give themselves the task of reviewing their own affairs in order to put together a map of how money laundering is carried out.”
This documentation has not been done in Mexico, the specialist emphasizes, and that is why it is difficult to discover the financial networks of the cartels.
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Something that the prosecutor Raúl Cervantes recognizes. For several decades, investigations focused on capturing or killing leaders of organizations.
“We had done it face-to-face, a frontal combat. But very little was done against the money” that the cartels obtain.
According to the United States drug enforcement agency, the DEA, the Mexican drug cartels make profits of about $30 billion each year. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
