El Chapos ex-mistress reveals cartel kingpin craved music stardom: Dream was to be a singer

He wanted to traffic in hit tunes!Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán didn’t dream of being a cartel boss — he wanted to be a singer in one of Mexico’s most famous bands, according to the former mistress who testified against the drug kingpin.Lucero Sánchez, 36, who had a son with El Chapo according to US federal court documents, told El Universal that Guzmán’s passion for music was evident when he sang songs by regional Mexican groups Los Canelos and Los Alegres.“His dream when he was younger wasn’t to become a narco,” Sánchez said.“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.”But growing up in a poor farming family in La Tuna, a village in the municipality of Badiraguato, sidetracked El Chapo and cut short his dream of singing with the iconic Banda el Recodo, which was formed in 1938 and is the only band to win nine Latin Grammy awards.El Chapo got into the drug game through his dad by growing marijuana for dealers and in the late 1970s linked up with Héctor “El Guero” Palma, who was a hitman with Miguel Ángel Felix Gallardo.El Chapo rose through the ranks and eventually co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel in 1987.“Obviously, a lack of education, resources, and opportunities led him down that other path,” said Sánchez.Sánchez was 20 when she first met El Chapo in 2010 and dated him from 2011 to 2014.

She recalled that he maintained a daily routine of having oatmeal, homemade bread and coffee for breakfast.When he was not out orchestrating massive transnational shipments of drugs, she said El Chapo enjoyed watching the news and Netflix.“He had his routine, his hobby – he’d get on the treadmill every day, eat healthily,” Sánchez said.Sánchez told El Universal she tried on multiple occasions to dump El Chapo for spying on her.She attempted suicide with a .25 caliber gun that he gave her as a gift.

She shot him in the ear when he tried to wres...