Explained | America poisoned: How El Chapo's sons built a fentanyl empire triggering an opioid epidemic in US

Days after the notorious drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán was extradited from Mexico to the United States in January 2017, local police in Sinaloa, where he was born, came under attack.Some were killed by gunfire in broad daylight. Others disappeared and were never found. In total, 13 police officers died or vanished in the months that followed.

Four intelligence and security sources claim that Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel altered its strategy after that rampage, bringing in the kingpin's four sons as part of a new force inside one of Mexico's largest drug cartels, as per an exclusive Reuters report.

The four brothers, also known as Los Chapitos or "the little Chapos," were formerly ridiculed by rivals as spoiled princelings more interested in flaunting their money on Instagram than being involved in thebusiness of smuggling tonnes of cocaine into the United States. While their father was imprisoned in the United States, the brothers revived a drug empire that was on the verge of collapse and expanded the business by embracing a new line of synthetic drugs.

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Their early bet on fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, sparked an opioid epidemic in the US that has put them directly in the eyes of American anti-narcotics agencies.

“The Chapitos pioneered the manufacture and trafficking of the deadliest drug our country has ever faced,” Anne Milgram, the USDrug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief, said at an April 14 press conference in Washington.

“They inherited a global drug empire and made it more ruthless, more violent and more deadly,” she added.

Los Chapitos issued a public statement for the first time ever, disputing assertions that they sell fentanyl and refuting claims made by American officials during the Washington press conference.

“We have never produced, manufactured or marketed fentanyl or any of its derivatives. We are victims of persecution and they made us a scapegoat,” the brothers said in the letter,published by Mexican news outlet Milenio late on Wednesday.

The brothers denied leading the Sinaloa Cartel and said that drug dealers and the media had used their father's fame to falsely accuse them of crimes they had not committed.

El Chapo has been imprisoned in a Colorado "Supermax" prison for the rest of his life. Guzmán's American lawyer, Mariel Colón Miro, stated that because of restrictions preventing him from communicating with the media, her client was unable to comment on the matter.

The rapid ascendancy of Los Chapitos

Their place in the world of narcoticshas already been sealed by a 2019 battle with the Mexican Army in the capital of Sinaloa, Culiacán. Following shootouts between cartel foot soldiers and military that claimed the lives of 14, including many bystanders, Ovidio, the youngest of the four siblings, was quickly released on instructions from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“This new generation is more violent,” said one retired Mexican police officer in Sinaloa who spoke to Reuters.

According to USand Mexican security officials, the brothers have fought within the cartel against elders who did not want them to take on their father's position, including El Chapo's former right-hand man Dámaso López.

However, these young guns have established a reputation for being astute businessmen. According to a half dozen USofficials and DEA sources, they have assisted in transforming Mexico from a country used as a transit for Chinese-produced fentanyl into a significant hub for manufacture. They said that Los Chapitos did this by expanding the smuggling of precursor chemicals from China and setting up a network of covert laboratories throughout Sinaloa, reported Reuters.

Astronomically high earnings

Their revenues have been astronomically high. One of the April indictments, which was issued in the Southern District of New York, claims that the cartel may convert precursor chemicals worth $800 into fentanyl tablets or powder that generate revenues of up to $640,000.

USauthorities allege that the money was used to fund a war chest that the brothers used to bribe law enforcement officials and politicians as well as to pay for a sicarios (or hit men) army that was constantly expanding in order to safeguard their interests.

Edgar, Iván, Jess Alfredo, Joaqun Jr., and Ovidio Guzmán, five of his childrenwho were born into one of Mexico's most illustrious criminal families, lived in luxury that their father, a semi-literate farm worker from Sinaloa's mountains before becoming the leader of a drug empire, could never have imagined.

They flaunted their pet tigers, Ferraris, and decoratedAK-47s on Twitter and Instagram. However, a social media expert who is familiar with cartel communications and two security sources, told Reuters that they thought the profiles were authenticdespite the fact that they were never verified.

Fentanyl and Americans

Infographic credits: Statista

The effects of Fentanyl on Americans have beencatastrophic. USDeputy Attorney General Lisa OMonaco stated at the Washington press conference that one American dies from a fentanyl overdose approximately every eight minutes. Nearly 107,000 overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2021, the majority of which were caused by fentanyl.

(With inputs from agencies)

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