The US federal agent who helped capture Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has given a rare glimpse inside the crime kingpin's real life, involving young prostitutes, contract killings and a lot of takeaway.
Eric Balliet, who worked in the team of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that brought down the cartel boss, first saw Guzmán in 2017 in a New York courtroom. He said: “This was the second most wanted man on the planet at the time behind Osama bin Laden, so I was expecting him to resemble some kind of criminal genius.
“But he looked like any average, middle-aged Hispanic man. He seemed kind of awkward and gave a sheepish wave to his wife. Then, a few minutes later, we started hearing about all the people he'd killed.”
Phone taps and daily texts
Investigators were able to intercept texts exchanged between El Chapo and his closest confidants and pinpoint his secret hiding place. Balliet has told how Guzmán would send nearly 100 texts a day, regularly ordering hitmen and prostitutes, but also messaging kind words to his children and grandchildren.
The US federal agent, who has now released a book, Kingpins & Coyotes, says the cartel kept in contact using BlackBerry Messenger. He said: “We first came across texts that mentioned several key details, including El Chapo's son - Edgar - who was killed in Culiacán in 2008.
“When we analysed the conversation there was no other reasonable explanation for who it could be. It had to be El Chapo and his second wife, Griselda.”
A taste for Chinese food
Guzmán, who chillingly claimed to have killed between 2,000 and 3,000 people, was also a big fan of Chinese food. “He liked to eat good food, particularly Chinese food, so he'd tell his courier to 'bring me Chinese' and the courier would know what he meant and go to a particular restaurant,” Eric recalls.
“He'd be very specific about what he wanted and once ordered birria stew [a traditional Mexican beef dish] for breakfast.”
Balliet described two sides to the kingpin. “There were two Chapo Guzmáns: one was the man who would have people killed and corrupted anybody if it suited his needs.
“But then there was this very affectionate side of him when he was talking to his kids, especially about his granddaughters or his young twins, and he'd be saying 'send my love' or 'I'm sending you strong hugs.'
“He could have had someone brutally killed and then five minutes later be sending someone a cake or an elaborate bouquet of flowers for their birthday.”
No mercy when things went wrong
Balliet also unveiled his brutal side, saying he showed no mercy when things went wrong. “There was one time they lost more than 600 kilos of cocaine on a boat west of the Galapagos Islands and they thought a guy stole it. He actually didn't - it was jettisoned overboard because the local coast guard approached the boat, but they blamed this poor bastard, so El Chapo told them to 'take care of it'. The guy wasn't heard of again.
“I'm sure some clinical psychologists would have a field day trying to understand how you can operate on those different axes.”
