

He achieved this by pioneering the use of distribution cells and long-range tunnels near borders, which enabled him to export more drugs to the United States than any other trafficker in history. Guzmán oversaw operations whereby mass cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin were produced, smuggled into, and distributed throughout the United States and Europe, the world's largest users. He later supervised logistics for Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, one of the nation's leading kingpins in the mid 1980s, but Guzmán founded his own cartel in 1988 after Gallardo's arrest. He helped Salazar map routes to move drugs through Sinaloa and into the United States. Guzmán began working with Héctor Luis Palma Salazar by the late 1970s, one of the nation's rising drug lords.

He endured physical abuse at the hands of his father, and also entered the drug trade through his father, helping him grow marijuana for local dealers during his early adulthood. Guzmán was born in Sinaloa and raised in a poor farming family. He is considered to have been one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world. Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera ( Spanish: born 4 April 1957), commonly known as " El Chapo" ( pronounced ), is a Mexican former drug lord and a former leader within the Sinaloa Cartel, an international crime syndicate. ADX Florence near Florence, Colorado, US
