Chicago's new Scarface is a shadowy Mexican drug kingpin nicknamed Chapo — “Shorty” in Spanish, says the Chicago Sun-Times. His cash crop is marijuana, which his cartel sells by the ton and protects with horrific violence. If you thought Chicago's Italian mob was the worst of the worst in organized crime, think again, federal agents say. “Chapo Guzman would eat them alive,” said Jack Riley, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago office.
The 5-foot-6 Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman rules the Sinaloa Cartel, which allegedly smuggles marijuana and other narcotics in planes, trains, ships, trucks, cars, and even submarines. Most of Guzman's product comes from Mexico, but some is grown nearby — deep in Wisconsin's North Woods, whose pristine lakes and pine forests are a paradise for weekend campers, hunters, and anglers. Although Chicago is in the U.S. heartland, in the marijuana trade, “We are on the Mexican border,” Riley said. Mexican marijuana dominates the Chicago market as local police and prosecutors are trying to devise a better way to deal with the tens of thousands of people arrested every year for possession of small amounts of pot. Most of those cases get dismissed in court, so several Chicago aldermen recently proposed an ordinance to allow officers to write tickets for minor marijuana possession.