El Chapo's capture will likely have little to no effect on Sinaloa cartel's business

By Brendan O'Connor

Last week, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was captured in the town of Los Michos, possibly because of an interview he conducted with Sean Penn for Rolling Stone. The Sinaloa cartel, however, will carry on business as usual: “It’s not even going to skip a beat,” one analyst told AFP.

“The capture won’t have a significant impact other than a moral victory,” a former international operations chief at the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mike Vigil, told Agence France-Presse. El Chapo, who faces extradition to the U.S., will probably be succeeded by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. “It’s going to continue to function.”

In the interview with Penn, El Chapo himself is seemingly aware of his diminished significance in the context of his business. “The day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all,” he said.

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