El Chapo Guzman, Enemy No. 1, Says DEA

Mexico, Jun 17. -Mexican Joaquin Guzman Loera is a major drug dealer and the most wanted criminal in the world, according to an analysis of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) released Thursday.

El Chapo Guzman, as he is known, has a vast criminal empire and is regarded as the Godfather of the drug world, said DEA.

DEA also said that if he is not arrested in the next year and a half he will get stronger, though he is much more powerful today than he was three years ago.

According to the DEA, Guzman already exceeded the influence and reach of Colombian Pablo Escobar, who in the 1980s was the head of the Medellin cartel and the largest exporter of cocaine to the United States.

However, El Chapo also succeeded in introducing marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, expanding these goods to Europe and Asia, weakening domestic rivals and having control over drug corridors into the United States.

El Chapo Guzman is wanted since 2001, when he escaped from a maximum security prison in Jalisco state, after the Mexican courts ruled his possible extradition to the U.S. territory.

Currently, Guzman remains as leader of the international drug organization "Alianza de Sangre", also known as the Sinaloa Cartel.

According to the list "the new 10 most wanted", of Forbes magazine, El Chapo Guzman currently ranks first in the world, and before the death of Bin Laden he was the second most wanted by the FBI and Interpol.

Forbes also put him in the position 60 of the most powerful people in the world, with a fortune of billions of dollars. (Prensa Latina)