Juan José Esparragoza Moreno
| Juan José Esparragoza Moreno | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 3, 1949 Huixiopa, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico |
| Other names |
Aliases
|
| Occupation | Leader of Sinaloa Cartel |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| Weight | 90.71 kg (200 lb) |
| Criminal status | Fugitve |
| Spouse(s) | Gloria Monzón |
|
Reward amount
|
Mexico: $30 Million Mexican Pesos; USA: $5 million USD |
| Partner(s) | Ismael Zambada García |
Juan José Esparragoza Moreno (born February 3, 1949), commonly referred to by his alias El Azul (English: "The Blue One"), is a Mexican drug lord and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. Originally a member of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) police agency, he founded the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s along with other drug kingpins in Mexico. Following its disintegration in the late 1980s, he went on to lead the Juárez Cartel, and eventually settled in the Sinaloa Cartel.
Juan José Esparragoza Moreno was born in Huixiopa, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico on 3 February 1949. He has an alternative date of birth on 2 March 1949 listed on the United States government databases. In the 1970s, he joined the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS), a now-extinct Mexican federal police agency, where he befriended police commanders involved in organized crime. Esparragoza Moreno's nickname, "El Azul" (English: "The Blue One"), derives from his complexion. He is said to be so dark that his skin appears to be blue.
After the implementation of Operation Condor (Spanish: Operación Cóndor), a Mexican antidrug program carried out in the 1970s to stop the flow of drugs from Mexico to the United States, many drug traffickers from the state of Sinaloa regrouped in Guadalajara, Jalisco to continue their operations. The regrouping led to the formation of the Guadalajara Cartel, a drug trafficking organization that eventually managed to control nearly all the narcotics trafficking operations in Mexico throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Among their original founders were Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (alias "El Padrino"), Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo (alias "Don Neto"), Rafael Caro Quintero, Esparragoza Moreno, and other Sinaloan drug kingpins. Throughout most of the 1970s and early 1980s, most of the cocaine that was smuggled to the United States was trafficked by the Colombian drug cartels through Florida and the Caribbean Sea. However, with increased law enforcement measures in these areas by the mid-1980s, the Colombian drug kingpins shifted their operations to Mexico.
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