Money Man Behind The World’s Richest Drug Dealer Is Captured

Last October 26th, in a swift but coordinated operation conducted by the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Attorney’s Office of the General Mexican Republic, the chief financial officer for the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán, A.K.A “El Vic”, was finally captured.

He was the financial operator for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and his children, and he got caught in an up class neighborhood of Mexico City. Besides his duties as CFO, the man was also responsible for the smuggling of heroin into the United States.

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Beltran, who is the successor of his father, Victor Manuel Félix Félix, A.K.A “El Señor” – captured in 2011 – was indicted in Chicago back in 2015. 30 anti-organized crime agents raided the 9th-floor apartment in the Santa Fe district where they say the Sinaloa CFO was hiding.

According to authorities, “El Vic” handled most of the cartel’s finances, including the cartel’s money laundering operations, and supervised the cartel’s heroin production and export into the country. Reports back in Mexico have described the Sinaloa criminal as El Chapo’s “consigliere,” that is being the top advisor to a crime boss usually associated with the Mafia or the cartels.

In 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department described Félix Beltrán as “a high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel trafficker” and reported him to be the head of the multi-million-dollar Mexico-to-Chicago trafficking operation. In the same year, federal prosecutors in Chicago charged Beltran with drug trafficking and money laundering charges, prompting his escape from authorities and becoming a fugitive.

Illinois authorities strongly believe that Beltran took over the cartel’s drug operations in Chicago after the arrests of twin brothers Pedro and Margarito Flores. Their testimonies were key in recapturing El Chapo and building the case against him.

Despite El Chapo’s arrest, the cartels are doing just fine without its leader as they continue to reap major profits from the narcotics exportation to Chicago. Investigators hope that with this arrest they will finally be able to bring the whole operation down.

Federal prosecutors, however, declined to say if they will seek Beltran’s immediate extradition, especially after a Chicago court filing on Monday was sealed by Judge Ruben Castillo. Beltran is also facing many drug-related charges in his native country of Mexico and is currently being held at the Attorney’s Office of the General Republic.

He is being constantly interrogated as the Mexican government conducts its own thorough investigation. They hope to finally bring down one of its most dangerous and violent threats – the Sinaloa cartel.

Article inspired by ABC 7 Chicago // Chicago fugitive and El Chapo CFO captured in Mexico