Joaquín Guzmán is on trial in the US for running the world’s biggest narcotic operation but the Mexican kingpin’s removal is unlikely to stem the flow of drugs

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán combined brutality, business sense and bling to build a multibillion-dollar international drug trafficking empire.

This was the portrait unveiled in a 17-count indictment United States authorities released on Friday as the cartel kingpin made his first appearance in a New York court a day after his extradition to the United States.

El Chapo is not a Robin Hood but a 'cancerous tumour', US prosecutor says Read more

The documents outlined in chilling detail how the Sinaloa cartel eclipsed Mexican rivals and elbowed aside Colombian cartels to become the world’s leading drug trafficker, using huge profits to run an “army” of gunmen and corrupt government officials of all ranks.

They also painted a daunting picture of Guzmán, an impoverished orange seller who ascended narco ranks to an apex of fame and fortune only to be caught last year and sent to the US on Thursday as an alleged gift to President Donald Trump.

“Driven by insatiable power and greed, Guzman’s personal history and characteristics demand detention to prevent him from being a danger to the community,” said a 56-page document which accompanied the indictments.

“Guzman’s violent, international and multi-billion-dollar drug trafficking empire continues to pump thousands of kilograms of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States for distribution in our communities.”

But even while prosecutors celebrated their victory in landing the drug lord in a Brooklyn federal court, analysts in the US and Mexico said Guzmán’s extradition would have little impact on the flow of illegal narcotics to markets around the world.

The court documents sought to debunk the Robin Hood-type image Guzmán enjoys in parts of Mexico but they conveyed some of the folklore surrounding the diminutive cartel boss, citing 11 pseudonyms, including Chapo (Shorty), el Jefe (the Boss), el Señor (the Lord) and el Rápido (the Fast One).

Guzmán earned the latter nickname in his early years for his speed and efficiency in smuggling drugs to the US and paying Colombian suppliers.

“As his reputation and prowess grew, Guzman was able to negotiate directly with members of the Colombian Cartels for higher fees, which the Colombians were all too willing to pay.” He diversified from cocaine to marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, sourcing precursor chemicals for the latter in Africa and Asia.

Guzmán cemented Sinaloa’s pre-eminence through bribery, said the documents. “A cornerstone of his strategy was the corruption of officials at every level of local, municipal, state, national and foreign government, who were paid cash bribes to ensure that he and the Sinaloa Cartel were free to bring in tonnage quantities of cocaine from South America and move it freely to the United States.”

The payments protected shipments on their way to the US border. “For example, as much as one million dollars in cash bribes were paid to law enforcement to ensure the safe passage of a single drug shipment through Mexico.”

Guzmán also enforced control through violence and intimidation with a “veritable army ready to war with competitors and anyone [he] deemed to be a traitor”, they said.

“Guzman himself was known for carrying a gold plated AK-47 and a gold and diamond-encrusted .45 mm handgun. Guzman also employed ‘sicarios,’ or ‘assassins,’ who carried out thousands of acts of violence, including murders, assaults, kidnappings, torture and assassination at his direction, to promote and enhance his prestige, reputation and position.”

Prosecutors said they will draw on dozens of witnesses, including many who had face-to-face dealings with Guzmán. They cited the murder of Julio Beltrán, a rival trafficker. “Assassins gunned down Beltran in the streets of Culiacan, using so many rounds of ammunition that Beltran’s head was almost completely separated from his body.”

One witness is due to testify about a murder house in Ciudad Juárez. “The house had plastic sheets over the walls to catch spouting blood and a drain in the floor to facilitate the draining of blood.”

The grisly details contrasted with Guzmán’s comments to Sean Penn last year – in an interview which may have led to the kingpin’s capture – when he claimed to seldom use violence. “Look, all I do is defend myself, nothing more. But do I start trouble? Never.”

Analysts in Mexico and the US said trafficking would continue even with Guzmán jailed in the US.

“Nothing here really changes,” said Miguel Ángel Vega, a reporter with the Ríodoce news organization in Sinaloa state. “People continue working the same as always, though there will likely be some adjustments,” he said, deploying a euphemism for a looming cartel leadership struggle.

Vega, whose reporting regularly takes him into the rugged Sierra Madre Mountains, where Guzmán grew up, said the former orange seller remained popular.

“I’ve spoken to people in the hills and they still like him as a friend, a person and a businessman. This is the impression that I get in interviews with people up there.”

Mexico's war on drugs: what has it achieved and how is the US involved? Read more

Over the past decade, the Mexican government has weakened and dismantled many of the country’s drug cartels, in a conflict which has cost some 200,000 lives. But many crime groups have splintered – only to regroup and re-emerge as smaller, more diversified groups which also carry out extortion and kidnapping.

The Sinaloa cartel, however, has stayed relatively strong, and relatively focused on the drugs trade – and Vega says it should stay formidable even with “El Chapo” facing US justice.

“The Sinaloa cartel continues being the strongest cartel in Mexico and strongest in the world.”

Bonnie Klapper, a former assistant US attorney who prosecuted drug lords, said Guzmán’s arrest sent a message that no one was untouchable but would not affect trafficking. “Will it have any lasting effect? No. Colombia’s current coca crop is the largest in history.”

The extradition’s timing – hours before Trump took office – raised eyebrows in Mexico.

Jorge Kawas, a Mexican security analyst, said President Enrique Peña Nieto and Barack Obama wished to pre-empt the new president. “Both would want to avoid giving Trump such an easy win which he could easily take credit for with a simple tweet.”

Others, including Klapper, speculated that the timing was in fact an attempt to curry favour with Trump. Mexico’s attorney general’s office insisted his inauguration had “nothing to do” with the timing.