The sons of notorious Mexican drug king pin 'El Chapo' are accused of torturing rivals before feeding them ALIVE to tigers.
Four of jailed Joaquín Guzmán's children, nicknamed 'Los Chapitos', have been charged with running a major fentanyl supply operation into the US.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 36, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 37, and Ivan Guzman Salazar, 40, who are among those fronting the Sinaloa cartel, remain at large.
Their brother Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 33, is already behind bars after being arrested on January 5 following a shootout that left at least 29 dead.
Prosecutors say their drug empire was fuelled by now-sanctioned Chinese chemical firms, while hostages were used to test the potency of the opioids.
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The indictment from the Southern District of New York alleges rival traffickers were often taken to a ranch belonging to Los Chapitos leader Ivan Salazar.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmabeing escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture (Eduardo Verdugo/AP/REX/Shutterstock)There they would be tied up and tortured for information - and those who failed to co-operate were fed - dead or alive - to pet tigers owned by the brothers.
It comes after the Justice Department announced on Friday charges against more than two dozen members of the cartel as part of a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, standing alongside Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors, unveiled the indictments in three districts aimed at hitting the cartel's global network.
The defendants span a broad swath of a complex manufacturing and supply network.
The alleged leader of the Los Chapitos Ivan previously boasted about his fearsome pets (Reach PLC)They include Chinese and Guatemalan citizens accused of supplying precursor chemicals required to make fentanyl, as well as those suspected of running drug labs in Mexico and others accused of providing security, weapons and illicit financing for the drug trafficking operation.
The wide-ranging case comes as the U.S. remains in the grip of a devastating overdose crisis largely by fentanyl poisonings.
Nearly 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2021, a record-setting number.
Fentanyl seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have increased by more than 400% since 2019, officials said, and this fiscal year's seizures have already surpassed the total for all of 2022.
Jesus Alfredo Guzmán-Salazar has been charged (US State Department)
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in JanuaryMost of the fentanyl trafficked in the United States comes from the Sinaloa cartel, the Drug Enforcement Administration says.
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El Chapo himself was convicted in 2019 of running an industrial-scale smuggling operation.
At his trial, prosecutors said evidence gathered since the late 1980s showed he and his murderous cartel made billions of dollars by smuggling tons of cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana into the U.S.
A defiant Guzmán accused the federal judge in his case of making a mockery of the U.S. justice system and claimed he was denied a fair trial.
Ivan Archivaldo Guzman (CEN)In outlining the charges on Friday, Garland described the violence of the Sinaloa cartel and how its members have tortured perceived enemies, including Mexican law enforcement officials.
That has included people fed to tigers owned by Guzman's sons, sometimes while the victims were still alive, Garland said.
Eight of those charged have been arrested and remain in the custody of law enforcement officials in Colombia, Greece, Guatemala and the U.S., Milgram said.
The U.S. government is offering rewards for several others charged in the case, including up to $10 million for Guzman's other two sons.
Vehicles with bullet holes sit on a street after clashes between armed groups and Federal Forces in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, in October 2019 (IVAN MEDINA/EPA-EFE/REX)Friday's indictments were filed in New York, Illinois, and Washington, D.C.
Ovidio was arrested in the Sinaloa capital of Culiacan.
Ovidio Guzman, nicknamed the Mouse, had not been one of El Chapo's better-known sons until an aborted operation to capture him three years earlier.
This time Mexico successfully got Guzman out of Culiacan. In 2019, authorities had him, but they released him after his gunmen began shooting up the city.
The shootout took place after authorities originally caught up with Ovidio Guzman Lopez (STR/EPA-EFE/REX)Some 30 people among authorities and suspected gunmen died in the operation, which unleashed hours of shootouts shutting down the city's airport. The U.S. government is currently awaiting the younger Guzman's extradition.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez and another brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, allegedly helped move the Sinaloa cartel hard into methamphetamines, producing prodigious quantities in large labs.
They were previously indicted in 2018 in Washington on drug trafficking charges.
The other two sons, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, are believed to have been running cartel operations together with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.
The US and Mexico are in hot pursuit of anyone affiliated with El Chapo (AFP via Getty Images)They were previously also charged in the U.S. in Chicago and San Diego.
Zambada had been rumored to be be in poor health and isolated in the mountains leading the sons to try to assert a stronger role to keep the cartel together.
The DEA said it investigated the case in 10 countries: Australia, Austria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and the United States.
"Death and destruction are central to their whole operation," Milgram said of the cartel. "Today's indictments strike a blow against the Chapitos and the global network they operate, a network that fuels violence and death on both sides of the border."
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