BADIRAGUATO, Mexico — The voice was unmistakably his. Mexico's most wanted criminal was back in his rural stronghold in the western Sierra Madre.
But when 200 army paratroopers swooped in by helicopter minutes after the voice registered on a wiretap, he was gone. The soldiers found only a few ranch hands and the drug baron's Hummer and Dodge Ram pickup, which they blew up before retreating in frustration.
The November raid was the closest a government search party has come to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman since he slipped out of a maximum-security prison in a laundry cart 4 1/2 years ago.
On the lam with a satellite phone, laptop computer and AK-47 rifle, the 50-year-old fugitive has rebuilt his empire and started a war with rival smugglers that has claimed more than 600 lives this year. Although Mexican officials call him one of the most prolific, innovative and ruthless traffickers they have ever faced, his disappearing acts have made him a folk hero.
The 5-foot-6 kingpin's nickname means "Shorty," but there is nothing diminutive about the shadow he casts on Mexico and the United States. The story of his mercurial career and bid for underworld supremacy offers a glimpse of a violent industry that bedevils both countries.
Although U.S. officials have repeatedly praised Mexico's anti-drug efforts under President Vicente Fox, including the arrest of 18 cartel leaders over the last four years, Guzman's elusiveness is an embarrassing symbol of the country's failure to stop the bloodshed or slow the flow of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and amphetamines into the United States.
"He is the last of the Mohicans," said Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City expert on law enforcement issues. "All the other big cartels have been decapitated. That is why they want him so badly."
U.S. authorities also want to get Shorty, who was indicted in 1995 in San Diego on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to import tons of cocaine. In December, federal authorities offered a $5-million reward for tips leading to his capture and are sharing intelligence with Mexican authorities.
Since then, the dragnet has tightened with the arrests in Mexico of Guzman's 21-year-old son (nicknamed "Little Shorty"), a brother, two nephews and a niece, all accused of aiding his drug business. Nine houses and six vehicles belonging to him and his associates were seized in June.
