As you probably know, Joaquín Guzmán, aka El Chapo, is, one of the most notable drug lords in the world. The Mexican former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel built an empire on drug trafficking, and he's thought to be responsible for the murders of over 34,000 people. Today, he sits in ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado, serving out a life sentence.

But his family, particularly four of his sons, "have consolidated control over and assumed leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel through their self-named Los Chapitos faction." The cartel remains one of the primary drug distributors in the United States and continues to be a prominent threat to our country. 

Donald Trump and his cabinet are now looking to change that. Two of the sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, are currently in United States custody. On Monday, the Trump administration announced that it was ramping up its efforts to find the other two, Iván Guzmán Salazar and Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, through a series of sanctions and rewards for their arrests. 

Specially, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the United States would be sanctioning the two men and Los Chapitos. The State Department is also offering a reward for their arrests. According to Bessent, Los Chapitos is "at the forefront of fentanyl trafficking into the United States," and "Treasury is maximizing all available tools to stop the fentanyl crisis and help save lives."  

The Treasury Department's press release says: 

Los Chapitos-controlled laboratories are responsible for introducing fentanyl in counterfeit pills manufactured by the Sinaloa Cartel and trafficked to the United States. Gunmen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel were also involved in the October 18, 2024 killing of former U.S. Marine Nicholas Quets in Sonora, Mexico. Additionally, OFAC is designating two fugitive leaders of Los Chapitos, Archivaldo Ivan Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, sons of incarcerated Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera. 

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce's statement echoed this information:  

Both Iván and Alfredo are designated as targets under the Narcotics Rewards Program with reward offers up to $10 million each for information leading to their arrests and/or convictions. The United States is also designating a regional network of Los Chapitos associates and businesses based in Mazatlan, Mexico. This network engages in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and money laundering. Today’s action follows the recent designation of the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).

"Los Chapitos’ dominance over fentanyl trafficking is largely the result of the faction’s capacity to procure precursor chemicals, while also controlling production via its secret laboratories in Sinaloa," according to the Treasury Department. 

Related: Cartel Violence Leads to a Bizarre '21st-Century Noah’s Ark'

Last September, an extremely violent turf war between Los Chapitos and another faction of the Sinaloa cartel, La Mayiza,  broke out in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, leading to the deaths of hundreds of people, while many others remain missing. As I wrote last month, the violence got to be so bad  that a popular animal sanctuary in the area had to move 700 exotic animals, some of which were owned by El Chapo himself, to a new location hours away because even they were dying and the staff couldn't operate the place properly. 

These guys are also responsible for the murder of Nicholas Quets, a 31-year-old Marine veteran who worked for Pima County, Arizona, on water reclamation projects. He was murdered across the U.S.-Mexico border, along the Caborca-Altar Highway. According to Quets' father, Doug, "Cowards in cartel insignia – more than two dozen strong – pursued Nicholas and fatally shot him in the back, through the heart, during a failed carjacking, only after confirming his status as an American." 

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