New Delhi

Sons of the notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo fed their victims, dead or alive to pet tigers, American media reported on Thursday (April 20) citing an indictment recently released by the United States Justice Department. The indictment accuses El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel of the massive influx of fentanyl into the US over the past approximately eight years, and for the accompanying violence and deaths that have afflicted communities on both sides of the border. 

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With El Chapo currently in jail serving a life sentence, the Sinaloa cartel is led, in part by, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, and imprisoned Ovidio Guzman Lopez- the sons of the drug lord. Collectively, the sons are known as the Chapitos or little Chapos. 

The Justice Department's indictment said that to protect and further the cartel's fentanyl trafficking operation, the Chapitos relied on sicarios (armed) enforces, as well as corruption and bribe payments to ensure loyalty to the cartel and protection. 

ALSO READ | US charges El Chapo sons, Chinese businessmen amid crackdown on fentanyl network

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"The Chapitos' sicarios comprise a security apparatus built to commit acts of violence in order to protect the Chapitos' operation and its leaders, territory, labs, trafficking routes and money."

The indictment highlighted that the cartel's sicarios regularly used military-grade weapons to perpetrate violence including murder, torture, and kidnapping. They have shot and killed Mexican government officials, tortured rival drug traffickers, including through electrocution, and even fed some of their victims to tigers belonging to Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar. 

El Chapo's sons also used their security apparatus to demolish unsupportive businesses, capture contested territory, intimidate civilians, and attack law enforcement. "This relentless violence led to rampant bloodshed and taken the lives of untold people in Mexico and the United States," the indictment added. 

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These revelations by the Justice Department come after El Chapo's sons were among 28 charged in a fentanyl investigation conducted by the US. 

The Justice Department had said that the four sons, especially Ovidio, "pioneered" the flood of fentanyl into the US since about 2014, earning millions for the northern Mexico-based operation.

EL Chapo's sons have previously been charged in US drug cases, and Washington is already seeking the extradition from Mexico of Ovidio, after his arrest there in January.

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