"El Chapo" met with other drug lords while on the run

By Carlos Loret de Mola

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán not only met with Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo in Cosala, Sinaloa. During the six months he was on the run, he also met with other drug lords.

According to sources from the Mexican federal government, “El Chapo” met three or four times with the godfather of his child, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, the last time one week before being recaptured, at Cruz de Elota, Sinaloa.

They were not alone. According to the testimony of "El Chapo", they were joined by Dámaso López Núñez, aka “El Licenciado” whom authorities say is the real leader of the Sinaloa cartel, above “El Mayo” Zambada and even the children of Guzmán Loera.

This man began his career as a member of the federal security force known as “policía judicial” in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, then he became public prosecutor and later second in command at the maximum security prison in Puente Grande, Jalisco. Before leaving this position, he left everything ready for “El Chapo” to escape prison shortly thereafter, in January 2001.

Dámaso López Núñez has an heir who seems to have more power within the criminal organization: his son Dámaso López Serrano, known as the “Mini Lic”. His posts on social networks boasting his power and luxurious lifestyle power put him under the radar of the DEA. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration describes him as a seductive man who tends to be a sociopath and leader of the sanguinary group of hitmen known as “Anthrax”.

After El Chapo was arrested for the first time under this administration, in February 2014, he told the people who took him from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, to Mexico City airport that he met with Rafael Caro Quintero shortly after he was released from prison on August 9, 2013.

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