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Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman
The lion's share of the American public doesn't realize that Mexican drug cartels' reach goes far into the states in one way or another.
In this case, notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel bought a luxury airplane from a Michigan company, but federal agents intercepted the turbo prop Rockwell International Commander 690B two years ago at the San Antonio International Airport in Texas before the pilot could fly it to Mexico, reports Robert Snell of The Detroit News. Nobody tried to get it back.
“Nobody wants the plane except for the government?” U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman asked a federal prosecutor during a recent hearing in Detroit, according to the report in the News.
“What’s it worth?” the judge asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Kuebler.
“Almost a million dollars,” the prosecutor said.
“Really?” the judge said.
To avoid detection, the cartel started buying planes further from Mexico and border states.
From 2006-2015, Mexican military authorities seized 599 aircraft from the cartel, according to the newspaper El Universal, Snell reports.
From 2009-11, Forbes magazine ranked Guzmán as one of the most powerful people in the world.
He was first captured by authorities in 1993 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But he bribed prison guards and escaped in 2001.
After years as a notorious fugitive he was captured in Mexico on Feb. 22, 2014 inside a condominium in Mazatlán, Sinaloa. On July 11, 2015, he escaped again, and in January 2016, he was captured in his home state of Sinaloa.
