Joaquín Guzmán Loera, or El Chapo, has been on trial for only a short time, but already many details have come out in a media firestorm about his life and those around him. But first, who is El Chapo?

He got the nickname ‘El Chapo’ from his height of 5’6. In Spanish, El Chapo means ‘the shorty’. He was born into poverty in his hometown of La Tuna, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico. Chapo’s father was in the drug trade business and was very abusive growing up. When he was only a teenager, Chapo got kicked out, he had to fend for himself. With little schooling, he turned to the drug world. Chapo started off small, growing and selling little amounts of marijuana. As he got older, he associated himself with well-known drug traffickers and eventually founded the Sinaloa cartel in 1989.

The Sinaloa Cartel became a global drug trafficking operation. It touched 5 continents, growing to be the biggest drug operation in the world. El Chapo and the cartel are responsible for at least 1,000 murders throughout Mexico.

In all of this, Chapo still maintained to have a family. He has now been married three times, his current wife being Emma Coronel Aispuro. Chapo has for sure nine kids but it may be thirteen. El Chapo has made millions of dollars, making his net worth 1 billion dollars.

Chapo was arrested multiple times before his final arrest, here is a timeline of the arrests:

June 1993– Arrested and sent to a maxium security prison in Mexico for 20 years due to homocide and drug charges. Chapo ran his drug operation through prison and escaped in 2001 by bribing guards.

February 2014– Chapo flew under the radar before being re-arrested in Mexico. He escaped again only to be captured again 18 months later.

July 2015– Chapo wanted to make a movie about his life, he wanted his story to be shared. So he met with American actor Sean Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo.

January 2016– Chapo is re-arrested for the third and final time.

October 2017– He is extradited to the United States and pleads guilty.

Chapo’s trial is still going on, he is set to be sentenced in June. Every day new details and stories of Chapo’s life arise. With all of this information, he is considered to be Mexico’s most powerful and dangerous drug trafficker.