El Chapo's sons stake claim to Sinaloa throne following father's recapture
The son of Mexico drugs lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman launched a fuming tirade at the country's president – threatening to 'take him out'. In further evidence that he is being groomed to take over his father's multi-billion dollar narcotics business, Ivan Guzman tweeted Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto: 'Just as we put you in the presidency, we can just as easily take you out.'
In a series of Tweets, as his dad 'El Chapo' was recaptured by marines after six months as the world's most wanted man, eldest son Ivan, 32, vowed to continue the moustached drugs kingpin's Sinaloa Cartel.
Ivan, his dad's biggest cheerleader, followed the tweet, which was quickly deleted, with a series of rants against the Mexican government.
Following Nieto's trumpeting statement, which crowed, 'Mission accomplished: We have him. I would like to inform Mexicans that Joaquin Guzmán Loera has been detained' – Ivan was raging.
'F*** your mother you f****** scum,' he blasted back in response as it was announced that his father's time on the run was up.
'You have no idea of what you have done, nor of the trouble you have gotten yourselves into,' another spat.
When Ivan threatened to 'take out' Nieto, his Twitter followers retweeted the comment retweeted or liked it 13,000 times.
Security experts in Mexico have long speculated that El Chapo, believed to be 57, is grooming Ivan to be the next head of his cartel – which he boasts is the biggest importer of cocaine, heroin and crystal meth into the US.
And with the drugs boss recaptured and fighting extradition to the US, it is believed the moment has come when the reins will be handed over to Ivan.
Along with his brother Alfredo, Ivan revels in the glamour of his father's wealth and notoriety – by posting pictures of the glamour of his jet set on Instagram.
Regularly posting photos of his narco lifestyle of supercars, bikini clad girlfriends, pet tigers and even gold plated AK47s, it was Alfredo who almost led the FBI directly to their father when he tweeted a picture of them in a restaurant in Costa Rica – and forgot to turn off the locator.
It is believed that Alfredo is too young and inexperienced to take control of the multi-billion dollar drugs organisation – and that it will be left to Ivan if and when his father is extradited.
During his most recent incarceration, US Drug Enforcement Agency papers stated El Chapo was passing messages to Ivan 'via attorneys who visited him in prison and possibly through the use of a cell phone provided... by corrupt prison guards'.
The same documents showed how Ivan orchestrated one of the foiled plots to free his father by asking the Mexican army's counter intelligence officers to devise a jailbreak plan.
In the controversial Rolling Stone article by actor Sean Penn, who secretly met El Chapo in October without the authorities' knowledge, he said Ivan 'is considered the heir to the Sinaloa cartel'.
'At 32, he is considered the heir to the Sinaloa cartel,' Penn wrote, adding 'He's attentive with a calm maturity.
'Like his brother [Alfredo], he boasts a fabulous wristwatch.'
In 2004 Ivan was a suspect in the murder of Canadian exchange student Kristen Deyell, who was gunned down outside a Guadalajara nightclub.
In 2005 he was charged with money laundering and organised crime offences after police found packages of cocaine and a weapon inside an SUV vehicle he crashed in the same Guadalajara neighbourhood.
When the charges were dropped, Mexico authorities indicted him for buying cars with money gained by 'illicit activities' and sentenced him to five years' jail.
A judge overturned the conviction and released Ivan in 2008.
The judge was later suspended for a series of 'questionable rulings'.
Ivan's younger brother Alfredo, 25, has denied the family have made threats to the Mexico government or the president.
'There's no time for any of that,' he tweeted broadcaster TV Azteca.
But in a sinister follow-up, he added: 'The day we are going to do something, we won't tell people about it beforehand.'
Nicknamed 'El Gordo' – or 'The Fat One' – Alfredo was once described by the Mexico Navy as a 'growing force' in his father's cartel and responsible for overseeing drug export to the US – and managed El Chapo's property portfolio.
El Chapo was yesterday returned to the Altiplano maximum security prison from which he escaped in July 2015 - and where the warden there is now himself a fellow inmate.
On his dramatic capture, Alfredo tweeted: 'Once again we have to go through this process.