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The Rise and Fall of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán: A Drug Lord's Journey

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, one of the most notorious drug lords in history, currently navigates the stark solitude of ADX Florence, known as the USA's “escape-proof” maximum-security prison. Having lost the warmth of natural light for years, his life has been marked by physical and psychological hardship. The bleak nature of his incarceration often leads him to describe the experience as worse than death. While he remains cut off from the outside world, memories of past escapes linger; he has famously declared, “I’ve tunneled out of prison before, and I can do it again.” This tale of fearsome ambition and cunning illustrates how El Chapo evolved from a poor farmer’s son into the kingpin of the global drug trade.