Top 10 Notorious Mexican Drug Lords

The ongoing Mexican government campaign has led to the killing of two major drug lords, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez and Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas at the end of 2010, and the arrest in June 2011 of Moreno's apparent successor Jesus Mendez Vargas. All this, however, offers small encouragement as Mexico tries to rein in the powerful drug cartels that have wreaked havoc across the country. TIME looks at 10 of the country's most prominent gangsters — dead or alive.

Not Your Pancho Villa

Joaquín Guzmán

By Ioan GrilloWednesday, June 22, 2011
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AFP / Getty Images

Alias: Chapo (Shorty)
Affiliation: Sinaloa cartel
Born: April 4, 1957, in La Tuna, Sinaloa
Bounty: $5 million (U.S.), 30 million pesos (Mexico)
What We Know: Guzmán stands just 5 ft. 6 in. tall. He escaped from a high-security prison in a laundry cart in 2001 and has since been blamed for starting bloody turf wars all over Mexico. He reportedly got married to an 18-year-old beauty queen in 2007; in 2008, his son was shot dead and Guzmán reportedly had 50,000 red roses sent to the funeral.

UPDATE: Still at large. Guzmán rose to the top of the FBI and Interpol most wanted lists after Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad.

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