The diminutive Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known universally by his nickname of 'El Chapo' ('Shorty' in Spanish), is the highest-profile narco-terrorist since the demise of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s. Loera began work at the age of nine as a gomero — a farmhand harvesting opium — and as he grew up he shot and murdered his way to the top, strewing corpses in his wake. In 2009, he made the Forbes annual billionaires list and before his capture by Mexican marines in 2016 the Sinaloa cartel which he commanded was turning over more than $11 billion in annual sales to North America, supplying more than 10 per cent of all illegal narcotics used on that continent. He became Public Enemy Number One in the USA. This is his story.
