El Chapo Dreamed of Music Stardom, Ex-Mistress Reveals

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the former co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, harbored dreams of becoming a music star rather than a drug lord, according to his former mistress, Lucero Sánchez.

Sánchez, who had a son with Guzmán, told Mexican newspaper El Universal that the cartel leader often expressed a desire to join one of Mexico's renowned musical groups, such as Banda El Recodo. "His dream when he was younger wasn’t to become a narco," Sánchez stated. "He used to say his dream was to be a singer – to join Don Cruz Lizárraga’s group, Banda El Recodo. That had always been his dream."

Growing up in poverty in the Badiraguato municipality of Sinaloa, Guzmán's aspirations were diverted by a lack of education and opportunities, Sánchez explained. He entered the drug trade through his father, cultivating marijuana before eventually co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel in 1987.

Sánchez, who met Guzmán in 2010 and maintained a relationship with him from 2011 to 2014, described his daily life. She noted that he followed a routine that included oatmeal, homemade bread, and coffee for breakfast. When not involved in drug trafficking operations, Guzmán reportedly enjoyed watching the news and Netflix, and adhered to a daily exercise regimen on the treadmill.

In an interview, Sánchez recounted an incident where Guzmán found it humorous after she accidentally shot him in the ear while attempting suicide with a gun he had given her. "Afterward, he was just laughing, saying, ‘You almost killed me, my queen,’ and things like that. He was joking about it," she recalled.

Sánchez, who served as a state lawmaker in Sinaloa, denied rumors that her political campaigns were financed by the cartel. She resigned from her position in January 2016 after authorities discovered she had used a false identification to visit Guzmán at the El Atliplano maximum-security prison. She was later arrested in the U.S. in June 2017 for drug trafficking conspiracy charges, to which she pleaded guilty in 2018 and was released in 2020.

Sánchez was one of the cooperating witnesses in Guzmán's federal trial in New York. She testified that Guzmán led her into the drug trade and that she was with him when they narrowly escaped capture by the military in 2014. Guzmán was convicted in February 2019 on all 10 counts, including drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy.

Regarding Guzmán's sentence, Sánchez expressed her personal opinion that it was excessively harsh. She also revealed that both Guzmán and fellow cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada had discussed retiring from their illicit activities due to their age. "They used to talk about retiring – living their lives quietly and at ease – because, well, they were obviously tired and getting old, as they put it," she said.

Sánchez believes the Sinaloa Cartel's influence is waning due to the imprisonment of its original leaders. The cartel is now reportedly divided into factions led by Guzmán's sons and Zambada's son, with Guzmán’s sons Ovidio and Joaquín in U.S. federal custody.