Juan José Esparragoza Moreno (February 3, 1949 – June 2014), commonly referred to by his alias El Azul (English: “The Blue One”), was a Mexican drug lord and member of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Guadalajara Cartel and the Juárez Cartel cartel . three large and powerful criminal organizations. Originally a member of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) police department, he founded the Guadalajara Cartel with other drug lords in Mexico in the 1970s. After its collapse in the late 1980s, he led the Juárez Cartel and eventually settled in the Sinaloa Cartel. He worked with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García, once considered the world’s most wanted, powerful and wealthy drug lords.
Juan José Esparragoza Moreno was born in Huixiopa, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico on February 3, 1949. He has an alternate date of
birth of March 2, 1949 listed in US government databases. In the 1970s, he joined the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS), a now extinct Mexican federal police force, where he befriended police commanders involved in organized crime. Esparragoza Moreno’s nickname, “El Azul” (English: “The Blue One”), is derived from his skin color. It is said that he is “so dark that his skin looks blue.”
Guadalajara
After the implementation of Operation Condor (Spanish: Operación Cóndor), a Mexican anti-drug program implemented in the 1970s to stop the flow of drugs from Mexico to the United States, many drug traffickers from the state of Sinaloa regrouped in Guadalajara, Jalisco. their activities. The realignment led to the formation of the Guadalajara Cartel, a drug trafficking organization that eventually managed to control virtually all drug smuggling operations in Mexico in the late 1970s and 1980s. Among their original founders were Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (alias “El Padrino”), Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo (alias “Don Neto”), Rafael Caro Quintero (alias “Rafa”), Esparragoza Moreno and other Sinaloan drug lords. During most of the 1970s and early 1980s, the majority of cocaine smuggled into the United States by the Colombian drug cartels was smuggled through Florida and the Caribbean Sea. But as law enforcement efforts in these areas increased in the mid-1980s, Colombian drug lords moved their operations to Mexico.
The Guadalajara Cartel took advantage of this opportunity and began supplying cocaine to the Colombian groups through the US-Mexico border. But instead of simply acting as smugglers, the cartel leaders decided to take a share of the cocaine profits for themselves (shares were often as high as 50%). Under their leadership, the Guadalajara Cartel initially oversaw the production and distribution of marijuana and opium poppies into the United States; by the 1980s the cartel began to expand its activities and include cocaine in its repertoire. The Guadalajara Cartel managed to smuggle cocaine into the US in multi-ton shipments every month, and their leaders reportedly amassed a fortune. At the same time, the cartel enjoyed a level of protection through the DFS police station; several members were directly involved in organized crime by actively participating in murder and drug trafficking on behalf of the cartel.
With the growing influence of the Guadalajara Cartel, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) began conducting covert operations in Mexico. One of the special agents, Enrique Camarena Salazar, was sent to the DEA offices in Guadalajara and began working undercover by infiltrating the Guadalajara Cartel. During his tenure in Guadalajara, Camarena discovered what seemed like a never-ending field of marijuana. In November 1984, Camarena sent Mexican authorities to a 220-acre (0.89 km2) marijuana plantation in Chihuahua, known as Rancho Búfalo (English: “Buffalo Ranch”), which was owned by the Guadalajara Cartel. Upon their arrival, Mexican soldiers destroyed tons of marijuana worth more than $8 billion. The raid resulted in a major financial blow to the Guadalajara Cartel, and its leaders vowed to exact revenge on those responsible for leading the Mexican government to the location.
torture and murder
In broad daylight on February 7, 1985, several DFS police officers kidnapped Camarena as he left the American consulate in Guadalajara. A few hours after the incident, his pilot Alfredo Zavala Avelar, who had been conducting operations for the DEA alongside Camarena, was kidnapped. Camarena was taken to a house at 881 Lope de Vega in Guadalajara, where he was tortured to obtain information about his knowledge of law enforcement operations targeting the Guadalajara Cartel; as well as any information the DEA may have on Mexican politicians involved in drug trafficking. Over the course of the more than thirty-hour torture session, Camarena’s skull, jaw, nose, cheekbones, trachea, and ribs were broken; the kidnappers called in a doctor to administer drugs to the officer to keep him conscious for the entire session. [23] The kidnappers made audio recordings of some parts of Camarena’s interrogation. The final blow was apparently delivered when the torturers crushed his skull with a piece of rebar or other similar piece of metal. About a month later, Camarena and Zavala’s bodies were taken to the neighboring state of Michoacán and dumped in a roadside ditch, to be discovered on March 5, 1985.
Camarena’s murder outraged the U.S. government and put pressure on Mexico to arrest all major players involved in the incident, resulting in a four-year law enforcement manhunt that took down several Guadalajara Cartel leaders. [28] Caro Quintero was arrested in Costa Rica on April 4, 1985 after fleeing Mexico; on April 7, 1985, Fonseca Carrillo was arrested by Mexican police in Jalisco; In March 1986, authorities arrested Esparragoza Moreno in Mexico City under the direction of DFS police commander Florentino Ventura. He was imprisoned in Mexico City’s Reclusorio Sur prison on March 11, 1986, on drug trafficking charges and for his alleged participation in Camarena’s murder. Esparragoza Moreno did not admit to the charges against him and said he was innocent. However, a federal judge sentenced him to seven years and two months behind bars. On July 9, 1990, he was transferred to another prison in Mexico City, and in March 1992, he was transferred to the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 (simply known as “La Palma”) in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico. A year later, Esparragoza Moreno completed his sentence and was released from prison.
While Esparragoza Moreno was in prison, Félix Gallardo was arrested at his home in Guadalajara in April 1989. In efforts to keep Mexico’s drug trade going while behind bars, Félix Gallardo called for a summit on organized crime in Acapulco, Guerrero. During the meeting, attendees agreed to dismantle the Guadalajara Cartel and divide its territories among themselves. Each drug lord was assigned a specific region where he could traffic drugs into the US and tax smugglers who wanted to transport merchandise into their territory. The Arellano Félix brothers and other drug traffickers formed the Tijuana Cartel, which controlled the Tijuana corridor and parts of Baja California; in the state of Chihuahua, a group controlled by the Carrillo Fuentes family formed the Juárez Cartel; and the remaining faction left for Sinaloa and the Pacific coast, forming the Sinaloa Cartel under human traffickers Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Héctor “El Güero” Palma, and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. When Esparragoza Moreno became a free man, he joined the forces of the Juárez Cartel.
Juárez
In 1993, Esparragoza Moreno joined the forces of the Juárez Cartel under the tutelage of the cartel’s leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes (alias “El Señor de los Cielos”), a top drug lord in Mexico. During Esparragoza Moreno’s tenure under Carrillo Fuentes, the Juárez Cartel used advanced technology, such as large aircraft, to smuggle narcotics, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, from Mexico to the US. business relationship with the Cali Cartel in Colombia, and owned a number of warehouses along the US-Mexico border that were used to hide their merchandise before it was smuggled. The cartel’s connection to the Mexican legal system was also reportedly well established; It is believed that former Mexican army general José de Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo protected the Juárez Cartel until he was imprisoned for drug trafficking in 1997. Furthermore, during the 1990s, the Juárez Cartel reportedly spent between $20 and $30 million financing each of their smuggling networks, generating millions more per week from drug proceeds. [41] Through a large network spanning the US, the Juárez Cartel recruited gang members to transport the drugs for them to urban areas such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Houston, Denver, Phoenix, and New York City.
In the cartel, Esparragoza Moreno initially worked as operational chief and later became second-in-command, just behind Carrillo Fuentes. He was also a business associate of imprisoned drug lord Juan José Quintero Payán (alias “Don Juanjo”), one of the founders of the Juárez Cartel. Esparragoza Moreno’s role in the Juárez cartel was that of negotiator, and he was responsible for forging alliances with Peruvian and Colombian drug suppliers. He was also a dispute mediator within the cartel and was credited with organizing a peace deal with the Gulf Cartel in northern Mexico. Since his tenure with the Juárez Cartel, Esparragoza Moreno has traditionally held leadership positions as number two, given his preference to maintain a low-profile status and avoid being arrested or killed as top leaders usually do.
In an effort to change his physical appearance and avoid detection by Mexican and American law enforcement, Carrillo Fuentes decided to undergo plastic surgery in 1997 and move outside Mexico. After the eight-hour operation at Santa Mónica Hospital in Mexico City, Carrillo Fuentes reportedly died of a heart attack caused by an overdose of the tranquilizer Dormicum or a gas mask malfunction. With Carrillo Fuentes’ leadership empty, a power struggle ensued within the cartel as their leaders and rival crime groups rushed to take over the kingpin’s empire. The natural successor was his brother Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who appointed his brother Rodolfo, his cousin Vicente Carrillo Leyva and others as part of his faction. However, Esparragoza Moreno and others within the cartel disagreed with imposing Carrillo Fuentes as leader.
The Federation
Esparragoza was linked during the first decade of the century to the leadership of “The Federation”, an alliance of the Sinaloa, Juárez and Sonora cartels (Caro-Quintero Organization).
Bounty
Esparragoza Moreno is currently wanted by the US Department of State under the Narcotics Rewards program and is offering a bounty of $5 million. In Mexico, he is on the list of Mexico’s 37 most wanted drug lords, and the Mexican government is offering a $2 million bounty. In the description on the wanted poster, the drug lord is said to have several aliases in addition to his trademark “El Azul”: Juan José Esparragoza Martínez, José Luis Esparragosa, Juan Esparragosa Ualino, Juan José Esparragoza Italino, Juan José Esparraguza Valino, Juan Manuel Ortiz Moreno , Arturo Beltrán, Raúl González, Juan Robles, Juan Robledo and El Huarache. The U.S. and Mexican government toll-free telephone tip lines are as follows: in the U.S. it is 1-866-EL-AZUL-5 (1-866-352-9855) and in Mexico it is 01-800-9000-234 or 01-800-0025-200.
Kingpin Act
The United States Department of the Treasury imposed economic sanctions on nine entities and ten individuals associated with Esparragoza Moreno on June 24, 2012. In the statement, the United States froze the assets of the drug lord’s relatives, which consisted of several gas canisters. stations, a shopping center, a housing company and other companies. The Treasury Department has blacklisted the ten individuals and banned American companies from doing business with them. Six of the ten people sanctioned were relatives of Esparragoza Moreno: two women and four of his children. However, one of his wives owned a property that was directly in his name. The other woman was sanctioned because she owned seven gas stations on behalf of Esparragoza Moreno.
The Treasury Department called Esparragoza Moreno a “godfather of Mexican narcotics” who has used illegal money to build a network in legitimate business. While other Mexican drug lords sought more attention, Esparragoza Moreno tried to keep a low profile in hopes of avoiding detection. However, Mexican investigators have expressed frustrations with announcements the United States is making about the Kingpin Act designations, saying U.S. officials are not providing the evidence needed to prosecute drug lords and their associates in Mexico. Courts.
Alejandra Araujo Uriarte, his mother-in-law, was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department in December 2014 for allegedly hiding assets belonging to Esparragoza Moreno. She was blacklisted because authorities believe that after the drug lord’s relatives were punished, his wife began laundering money through her bank accounts.
Alleged
On June 7, 2014, Esparragoza Moreno reportedly died of a heart attack at the age of 65, apparently after a car accident he had fifteen days earlier. According to unconfirmed reports, Esparragoza Moreno was confined to bed after injuring his spine during the wreck. When he tried to get up from his bed, he had a heart attack and died.
Sources disagree on the exact location of his death; Some say he died in Mexico City, while others suggest it may have been in Guadalajara. Esparragoza Moreno’s remains were reportedly cremated and sent to Culiacán, Sinaloa by his relatives and friends.
Mexico’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies, Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) and the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (CISEN), led the investigation along with the DEA. PGR chief Jesús Murillo Karam indicated that the Mexican government did not have sufficient evidence to confirm the rumors surrounding the drug lord’s death. Badiraguato Mayor Mario Valenzuela and Sinaloa Governor Mario López Valdez stated that the rumors were false.
On June 11, 2014, the CISEN, the PGR and the Policia Ministerial announced that they had intelligence reports indicating that Esparragoza Moreno may have died in a hospital in Culiacán (not in Guadalajara or Mexico City, as previously mentioned). According to those unconfirmed reports, Esparragoza Moreno was registered in the hospital under an assumed name and died there of a heart attack. Before authorities had a chance to confirm his death, the investigation said, his body was removed from the hospital and cremated the next day. Authorities conducted similar investigations in Mexico City, Jalisco, Nuevo León and Sinaloa, but they found no information confirming or denying the rumors surrounding Esparragoza Moreno’s death.
In August 2014, José Juan Esparragoza Jiménez, the son of Esparragoza Moreno, was arrested on charges of trafficking methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. During his police interrogation he stated that his father had died.