Beer named after drug lord awaits government approval

A beer named after the notorious and now imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as ‘El Chapo’, which has been unveiled by his daughter, may soon go on sale.

Image: Wiki Commons

As reported by Univision, a Mexican company called El Chapo 701, run by Alejandrina Guzman Salazar, the daughter of El Chapo, is awaiting government approval after developing a beer brand.

Part of the wider El Chapo 701 brand, which already includes a clothing line, the 4% ABV beer is made from malt, rice and honey, a spokesperson for the company told Univision.

If granted approval, a 335ml bottle of the El Chapo lager will retail for 70.10 pesos (£2.89). While not yet available, the beer was previewed at Mexican fashion show Intermoda, held in Guadalajara.

Guzmán was the former leader of Sinaloa Cartel, a Mexican organised crime group primarily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.

Having been first imprisoned in 1993, Guzmán managed to escape and was on the run from 2001. He was re-arrested in 2014 and finally recaptured in 2016 before being extradited to the US in 2017. He is now serving a life sentence for a number of criminal charges in a prison in Colorado.

He was also required to forfeit over US$12.6 billion, a figure attributed to the value of his crimes committed while at the helm of the infamous cartel.