The world's most infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman entered the United States twice to visit relatives in California after meeting with two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn and before being recaptured, his daughter told British newspaper The Guardian.
El Chapo's eldest daughter Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz, a Californian business person, said her father eluded a huge manhunt in Mexico with complicity of federal officials and dodged U.S. border controls to sneak into California.
Rosa also told The Guardian that her father paid off senior Mexican politicians with huge electoral campaign donations, which is why, she added, he was able to escape maximum security prisons on two occasions. She, however, did not mention names.
El Chapo first escaped a maximum security jail in 2001. Versions of how he escaped vary. One says he escaped jail in a laundry cart, while a second one suggests that he paid off President Vicente Fox to allow him to walk out the main entrance of the jail in Puente Grande, in the northern Mexican state of Jalisco.
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Guzman escaped again in July 2014 through a high-tech one-mile tunnel that opened up with absolute precision into the shower of his cell. The many irregularities in security measures and procedures exposed after his jail break revealed a high-level of complicity, which experts assure could reach as high as President Enrique Peña Nieto, who accepted from El Chapo a multi-million dollar donation when running for president, the DEA confirmed.
“My dad is not a criminal. The government is guilty,” Rosa Isela told the British newspaper in an exclusive interview.
“The explosive allegations made by Guzman Ortiz could not be independently verified and are likely to be vigorously contested by Mexican and U.S. authorities,” The Guardian said.
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Guzman's daughter also spoke of betrayal within the Sinaloa Cartel leadership, specifically by another worldwide drug trafficker, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, whose name has come up on various occasions when drug kingpins talk of back stabbing within the organization.
Rosa Isela said her father were going to hand over control of the Sinaloa Cartel to her half-brother Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, but was betrayed by El Mayo. She said he was supposed to protect El Chapo, but didn't. El Mayo has been accused of betraying the Beltran Leyva brothers, Gonzalo “El Macho Prieto” Inzunza, and Gonzalo “El Chalo” Araujo. All were at one point security chiefs for El Mayo and El Chapo.
While visiting the U.S., “My dad deposited the money in a bank account with a lawyer and a while after he came to see the house, his house. He came twice,” Rosa Isela said.
El Chapo's daughter said Guzman visited her a few months before being recaptured in January 2016.
The Sinaloa Cartel leader's alleged visits to the United States in late 2015 will undoubtedly send shockwaves through the U.S. federal government and prompt a thorough investigation into Rosa Isela's allegations.
