El Chapo Guzman; How Dangerous Is He?

Guzman was born in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, at a time when the drug trade was evolving, and he began his career working for powerful drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, according to a biography by Time.

He founded his own cartel in 1980 and established outposts in a number of states, eventually inheriting some of his mentor's territory, according to Time.

His drug empire became Mexico's most powerful, the Sinaloa cartel. It was deadly, authorities said. Guzman surrounded himself with ruthless guards and enforcers and reigned over a multibillion-dollar global drug empire that supplied much of the marijuana, cocaine and heroin peddled on the streets of the U.S.

After his last escape, in 2001 in a laundry cart, he eluded authorities for more than a dozen years.

During that time, the stories told about him veered close to the stuff of legend.

So powerful was he, people said, that he could bribe anyone. He commanded so much loyalty, the story went, that he was always tipped off when the heat was close. He was so fearless that he could live his life without concern of being caught.

But in 2014, when he was arrested in a hotel in the Pacific beach town of Mazatlan, in his home state of Sinaloa, it seemed his influence had its limits.

Arrested in 2014

In Mexico, the strength of his enterprise helped unleash an ongoing drug war that has left thousands of his countrymen dead.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman proclaimed his presence in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and said to be cleaning the region of Zetas when he displayed 14 dismembered bodies of alleged Zeta members.