The torture methods of the Sinaloa cartel are varied, numerous and specifically tailored to send fear rippling through communities they rule over in Mexico and beyond. Those who fall foul of their criminal regime get corkscrews twisted into their flesh to extract the muscles, hot chilis placed in the open wounds, and are sometimes fed to the leaders’ pet tigers. The cruelty is the point. There are instances of waterboarding, electrocution and, in some cases, prisoners hung upside down to be used as live human punching bags by one-time WBC world middleweight champion Julio César Chávez Jr.
Evidence of Chávez Jr’s sadistic side hustle was allegedly picked up by the Fiscalía General de la República (Mexico’s attorney general’s office) when it tapped the phones of Nestor Ernesto Perez Salas, a Sinaloa linchpin better known as “El Nini”. Between December 2021 and June 2022, El Nini was heard on intercepts issuing directives about a punishment to be meted out to men who had failed to carry out orders. It involved them being strung up and pounded upon by somebody whose career resume includes victories over the Irish trio of Andy Lee, John Duddy and Oisin Fagan. And who happens to be the son of Mexico’s most beloved fighter, the fabled Julio César Chávez.
At a sold-out Honda Center in Anaheim, California on the last Saturday night in June, Chávez Jr, in his more humdrum day job, took on the self-styled YouTube legend Jake Paul in a 10-round cruiserweight contest. After the usual surfeit of puerile trash talking in the build-up and a Mariachi band playing in his dressing-room beforehand, he won a single round while losing a one-sided contest that, somehow, cost $59.99 (€51) on DAZN pay-per-view. At 39, more than a decade removed from his prime, the Mexican earned $750,000 for playing the role of game patsy in Paul’s sustained attempt to gain some measure of fistic credibility.
Four days later, Chávez Jr was riding an electric scooter near his home in the upscale Los Angeles neighbourhood of Studio City when 25 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents blocked off the street and converged upon him. In footage that has emerged of his arrest, he cuts a bemused figure, standing by a police car in handcuffs with a chain around his waist. Whisked away, he was slated for expedited deportation without even getting the opportunity to alert his wife, Frida Muñoz, an American citizen who is the widow of Édgar Guzmán López, favourite son of the infamous and currently imprisoned Joaquín Guzmán aka “El Chapo”.
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The great Julio César Chávez was coming towards the end of his own epic career of 107 wins, six defeats and two draws when his 17-year-old child and namesake, who had been doing ring walks with him since childhood, made his victorious pro debut in Culiacán in 2003. The kid’s progress was carefully managed thereafter, his name considered box-office gold. A path to the middleweight title was eventually carved out for him by his godfather, WBC president José Sulaimán, who controversially yanked the middleweight belt away from incumbent Sergio Martínez in 2011.
He successfully defended the title three times, including a 7th-round stoppage of Lee, before Martínez wrested back his rightful crown. Aside from a unanimous decision defeat by Canelo Álvarez, Chávez Jr’s career then degenerated as he battled drink, abused Adderall and Xanax, struggled to make weight, and failed mandatory dope tests. A devalued currency as a fighter, he went to jail for drunk driving and was arrested in California last year while carrying two AR-15-style ghost rifles (weapons with serial numbers shaved off).
There have also been disturbing livestreams in which he’s had public spats with his wife and family, making wild accusations about attempted kidnappings of his children. His own father’s later career was also pockmarked by alcoholism and drug addiction before he eventually opened a rehab facility to help others. Fearful his son might die, Chávez the elder once staged an intervention and forced him into his treatment facility against his will. Ironically, many of the patients there are trying to get off Fentanyl, the very pills from which the Sinaloa cartel has made billions and drawn the attention of the US government.
“Chávez is a Mexican citizen who has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organised crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition and explosives,” said the US Department of Homeland Security in a statement following his detention. “In August 2023, he entered the country legally with a B2 tourist visa that was valid until February 2024. Chávez is also believed to be an affiliate of the Sinaloa cartel, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.”
The authorities knew all that and had built a case against him before he climbed into the ring last month. Yet, they waited until after the lucrative bout, worth $8 million to Paul, a strident and vocal Trump supporter, before acting on the information. Curious that. In a fraught political climate where a Venezuelan immigrant was deported to El Salvador earlier this year because his Real Madrid tattoo was interpreted as a gang symbol, ICE doesn’t and won’t offer any explanation for any action they take.
“Why did they let him fight?” asked Chávez senior the other day. “My son has been paying taxes in the United States for three years, and now in Mexico they’re accusing him of money laundering.”
That, and a whole lot more.
