This would be the fortune of Ovidio Guzmán, son of ‘Chapo’

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the largest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico. whose power is maintained despite arrests such as this Thursday of Ovidio Guzmánson of the imprisoned founder of the organization, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

The group, to which hundreds of murders and barbaric acts are attributed, showed its firepower this Thursday with shootings and blockades in Culiacán (northwest), after the arrest of Ovidio.

A similar episode occurred in 2019 in the so-called “Culiacanazo”when the violence unleashed by the group forced President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to order the release of Ovidio Guzmán.

After the capture and extradition of El Chapo to the United States in 2017, the command of the cartel was in charge of Ismael ‘Mayo’ Zambada, one of Guzmán’s old partners and his sons Ovidio, Joaquín, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, known like Los Chapitos.

Zambada is the Mexican capo with the highest value for the United States, they offer a reward of 15 million dollars for him. For Ovidio they paid five million dollars.

The cartel takes its name from the state of Sinaloa, located in northwestern Mexico and a major center for the production of marijuana and poppy, the raw material for heroin.

Along with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), the one from Sinaloa is one of the dominant criminal organizations in the country.says the US drug enforcement agency (DEA).

It is estimated that their networks extend to fifty countries, according to the organization Insight Crime.

How much money does Ovidio Guzmán have?

To measure the amount of money that the drug business moves in countries like Mexico, it should be noted that El Chapo was present on 4 occasions within the list of the richest people in the world made by the magazine Forbes.

For the first time he appeared in 2009 with a fortune of one billion dollars (position 703), in 2010 he maintained his fortune figure, but it fell 203 places. Then in 2011 he was ranked 1,140 in the world.

In 2012 it was ranked 1,153, and by 2013 the magazine was unable to establish its fortune as it was unable to determine figures and the origin of the money.

As for Ovidio Guzmán, it is estimated that he may have doubled his father’s initial fortune. This due to his influence in the cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine business. As estimated by the Mexican media ok ok, Ovid has a fortune of two billion dollars.

Barbarism

Members of the Sinaloa cartel have staged violent confrontations with other criminal organizations and with law enforcement in several cities in Mexico.

Some of the bloodiest episodes have been recorded in Ciudad Juárez, as a result of the dispute that the organization had with the Juárez Cartel over drug trafficking routes in the region.

Dismembered corpses or hanging from bridges are among the crimes of these cartels, according to the Mexican authorities, who estimate 340,000 murders that have been recorded in Mexico since a questionable anti-drug military operation was deployed in 2006 with the support of the United States.

The Sinaloa Cartel exports and distributes large amounts of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana to the United Statesand also dominates the corridors of Arizona and California to send drugs.

“The greatest fentanyl threat to the United States is the Sinaloa Cartel, given its ability to have clandestine laboratories in areas of Mexico,” the DEA said in its most recent annual report.

According to the United States health authorities, fentanyl (a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin) is responsible for numerous overdoses in that country.

Who is Adriana Meza Torres, the wife of Ovidio Guzmán and the ‘new queen’ of the Sinaloa Cartel?

The woman, who was baptized with the nickname “The new queen of the Sinaloa Cartel,” became relevant again thanks to the fact that she is assumed to be the supposed wife of The Mouse and successor of Emma Coronel, wife of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, which faces a judicial process in the United States.

According to information published by The universal, Adriana is the daughter of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada’s lieutenant, Raúl Meza Ontiveros, who identified himself as M-6, and whose life was taken in 2007, in Culiacán. In addition, there is information that she is the sister of the Mini M-6.

During this period, in the administration of Felipe Calderón, the death of an alleged brother of Adriana, Raúl Torres Meza, better known in the world of drug trafficking as the Mini M-6, which would have been shot down in Zapopan, Jalisco.

Despite the data that has been obtained, the defense of the so-called ‘The new queen of the Sinaloa Cartel’ has promoted some injunctions to annul the UIF’s action; however, these have prospered in different ways, since allegedly there is an absence of tax declarations, as well as some cash payments during trips abroad.

At that time, the justification of the FIU was that Adriana maintained or maintains a sentimental relationship with Ovidio. In a public statement, SHCP officials said that the freezing of the accounts “constitutes warning signs regarding the probability that he is lending names to the criminal group led by Joaquín Guzmán with the purpose of hiding the real owner of the resources that he classifies as illegal.”

This information was released during the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN), because it was pointed out that the federal government One of his intentions was to freeze the bank accounts of Meza Torres, presuming that “he had or maintains a sentimental relationship with Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias El Chapo, so his profile could serve to divert the attention of some criminals.

However, after the Culicanazo in 2019, when El Ratón was first arrested under the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), Mexican authorities announced that Adriana Meza’s accounts were frozen.

In the midst of these investigations, it was revealed that the woman was allegedly engaged in agriculture, a situation that raised even more suspicions about the real origin of her income, since she maintained an expensive lifestyle.

Since then, she tried to defend herself and recover her money, however, it was not until November 2022 that she managed to gain control of her money and bank accounts, arguing that she was engaged in agriculture.

However, the Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) has pointed to Meza as an alleged front man for the Los Chapitos organization, especially for the activities of Jesús Alfredo and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, as well as Ovidio and Jesús Guzmán López.

*With information from AFP.