April 6, 2011: San Fernando Drug Massacre Bonus: Shorty Guzman Captured!

A Brief History

On April 6, 2011, the second San Fernando mass killings incident was discovered.  On February 22, 2014, the day I (Major Dan) actually wrote this article, cable and national news outlets trumpeted the capture of Mexican drug Kingpin, Joaquin Guzman, known as “Shorty” or “El Chapo” in Spanish.

Digging Deeper

Although not the drug lord responsible for the San Fernando massacres, as head of the Sinaloa cartel his underlings have committed perhaps hundreds of murders, massacres, and have certainly planted more than a few mass graves!  Making billions of dollars of ill gotten profits a year, Guzman was perhaps the biggest of the big Mexican drug lords and was considered the number one target of drug law enforcement in Mexico.  The president of Mexico had tasked his Marine Corps to conduct the search for and arrest of Guzman as he considers them the least corrupt government agency!

Guzman, age 56, had narrowly escaped a raid to arrest him a few days prior to his arrest by fleeing through secret tunnels while raiding police had to fight their way through reinforced steel doors.  This time, there would be no escape and Guzman was captured without a shot being fired. It is possible if not likely that the US government drug enforcement authorities had a hand in locating and perhaps planning his arrest, as the US had a $5 million bounty on him.

It is estimated 80,000 people have died in Mexican drug violence, just since 2007!  It does not get much more cracked than that!

Question for students (and subscribers): Should there be a border wall along the lines of what former President Donald Trump wants between Mexico and America to help fight the cross-border drug trade?  Please let us know in the comments section below this article.

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Historical Evidence

For more information, please see…

Beith, Malcolm.  The Last Narco: Inside the Hunt for El Chapo, the World’s Most Wanted Drug Lord.  Grove Press, 2011.

Bush, James.  Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – Biography of a Billionaire Fugitive.  2012.

The featured image in this article, a chart by Grupo Reforma of murders in Mexico since 2006 related to drug trafficking activities, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

You can also watch a video version of this article on YouTube.