Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is known for being one of the most powerful drug cartel leaders, but his former mistress Lucero Sanchez says his dream when he was young was very different, according to NYPost.
Instead, he wanted to become a singer and join Don Cruz Lizarraga’s group, Banda El Recodo. Sanchez later became a state lawmaker. She rejected allegations that the cartel had financed the campaign that led to her election as the Cosala XVI district representative in the Sinaloa state congress. Prosecutors proved that Guzman was the main leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
She resigned from her seat in January 2016 after Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office discovered that she had used a fake ID to visit Guzman at El Altiplano, the maximum-security federal prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico. Guzman had escaped from the prison in June 2015. Sanchez was detained on June 21, 2017, when she tried to cross the US-Mexico border at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry using a visa that had been cancelled by the US State Department. She was later charged with conspiring to traffic drugs from January 2013 to June 21, 2017. She pleaded guilty in 2018 and was released from prison in 2020. Sanchez was one of 14 cooperating witnesses who testified against Guzman during his federal trial in New York from November 2018 to February 2019. She testified that Guzman had introduced her to the drug trade and that she bought 883 pounds of marijuana that was shipped by plane. She also testified that she was with Guzman when he was nearly captured by the military at a safe house in Culiacan in 2014. He was convicted on all 10 counts, including drug trafficking, using a firearm to commit drug crimes and participating in a money laundering conspiracy on February 12, 2019.
He wanted to become a singer and join Banda El Recodo, one of Mexico’s famous bands, according to Sanchez. Sanchez, who testified against Guzman in his US federal trial, told El Universal that his love for music was clear when he sang songs by regional Mexican groups Los Canelos and Los Alegres. Sanchez said Guzman used to tell her that becoming a drug trafficker was not his dream when he was younger. She attempted suicide with the gun and shot Guzman in the ear when he tried to take it from her, according to Sanchez. She said Guzman later laughed about the incident and joked that she had almost killed him. They escaped through a tunnel built under the home, according to her testimony. However, Sanchez told El Universal that she believes his sentence was too harsh and said she did not think he deserved it.
Guzman entered the drug trade through his father by growing marijuana for dealers. Guzman later rose through the ranks and eventually co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel in 1987. Sanchez was 20 when she first met Guzman in 2010 and dated him from 2011 to 2014.
She said Guzman grew up in a poor farming family in La Tuna, a village in the municipality of Badiraguato. His lack of education, resources and opportunities eventually led him down a different path, according to Sanchez. In the late 1970s, he joined Hector “El Guero” Palma, who was a hitman with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. When he was not organising drug shipments, Sanchez said he enjoyed watching the news and Netflix. She also said he got on the treadmill every day and ate healthily.
The Sinaloa Cartel is currently divided into two factions and is involved in an internal conflict. Guzman’s other two sons, Ovidio Guzman Lopez and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, are in federal US custody. Because guzman was spying on her, sanchez said she tried several times to end the relationship. Because its original leaders are in US prisons, sanchez believes the Sinaloa Cartel’s end is near.
Sanchez also said Guzman and Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada were considering retiring from the drug trade because they were getting older. They talked about living quietly and comfortably after leaving the drug trade, according to Sanchez. She said they never discussed who would become their successors and that, in her understanding, Guzman did not want his children to become involved. She said the cartel has not been the same since Guzman and El Mayo, who had maintained control, surrendered. Two of Guzman’s sons, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and Jesus Alfredo Guzman, run the faction known as “Los Chapitos”, while El Mayo’s California-born son, Ismael “Mayito Flaco” Zambada Sicairos, leads the “Los Mayos” cells.
