Before Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán became the world’s most infamous drug trafficker, there was Héctor Luis “El Güero” Palma Salazar, the calculating, soft-spoken narco who once co-ruled the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo. Today, after nearly three decades in and out of prison on both sides of the border, Palma is back in headlines for reasons that merge courtroom drama with cyber espionage, cartel mythology, and diplomatic undercurrents stretching from Mexico to Washington.
Palma, now 64, emerged last week in a Sinaloa courtroom under heavy guard, his name again tethered to an unresolved double homicide charge that has lingered since his 2016 return from US custody. The case was presumed dormant, until a federal judge reignited proceedings, citing newly surfaced witness claims. The timing couldn’t be more fraught. US law enforcement had infiltrated cartel communication networks using cyber tools that exposed a covert ring of FBI informants inside Mexico’s criminal underworld.
The reemergence of Palma, once known as “El Chapo’s compadre” and the cartel’s cerebral tactician, underscores the fragility of Mexico’s judicial system in the face of mounting US pressure, as well as the enduring legend of a man who helped architect the world’s most powerful narcotics empire.
El Chapo Guzman the man before the myth
Born in Mocorito, Sinaloa in 1960, Palma’s trajectory into the upper echelons of Mexican organized crime began with car theft and quickly evolved into contract killings, cocaine logistics, and regional dominance. In the late 1980s, he aligned with Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo’s Guadalajara Cartel, serving as an enforcer before co-founding the Sinaloa Cartel alongside El Chapo Guzmán and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Known for his strategic mind and brutal precision, Palma was no less ruthless than his contemporaries. In one widely cited episode, Palma allegedly avenged the murder of his family by mutilating a rival and sending the remains as a warning. Yet despite his notoriety, his public profile remained eclipsed by Guzmán’s media theatrics and Zambada’s operational discretion.
Rise, fall, and resurrection
Palma’s fall came quite literally from the sky. In 1995, his private Learjet crashed near Guadalajara, where he was captured by Mexican authorities and sentenced to 19 years. In 2007, he was extradited to the United States and served a sentence for cocaine trafficking until his release in 2016. Mexico re-arrested him on landing, citing pending homicide charges that would keep him behind bars even after US authorities let him go.
Legal experts have described his prolonged detention as a Kafkaesque cycle of acquittals followed by recharges, rooted less in new evidence than in political inertia and judicial inconsistency. “El Güero Palma is a legal ghost, never fully convicted, never fully freed,” said one Mexican defense attorney familiar with the case.
FBI hacks stir deeper fears
The sudden momentum in Palma’s case coincides with reports that US intelligence had hacked into cartel communication networks, exposing FBI informants embedded deep within Sinaloa and Jalisco syndicates. The CNN revealed how encrypted messages were compromised in an operation that now jeopardizes the safety of numerous US assets and further strains the delicate intelligence-sharing architecture between the two nations.
Though Palma’s defense team has not publicly linked his revived prosecution to these revelations, the synchronicity is conspicuous. Former DEA officials told The Eastern Herald that resurrecting old charges may serve as a tactical move to keep dangerous actors contained amid intelligence fallout.
El Chapo’s shadow, still looming
Even from his Supermax cell in Florence, Colorado, El Chapo Guzmán continues to cast a long shadow over cartel affairs, and Palma’s resurgence only tightens that narrative web. The two were once family: Palma is El Chapo’s compadre. Their alliance defined the Sinaloa Cartel’s early structure, built on loyalty, intermarriage, and strategic ruthlessness.
While El Chapo’s sons, the so-called Chapitos, now run much of the cartel’s fentanyl and trafficking operations, the elder generation still commands symbolic power. In that regard, Palma’s reappearance may not be about prosecution alone, but about controlling narratives, resetting alliances, and sending a message to rivals and insiders alike.
A judiciary under pressure
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has frequently criticized the “fabricated charges” levied against Palma, citing prosecutorial overreach and procedural violations. However, critics argue that AMLO’s administration is walking a dangerous tightrope: defending sovereignty while also bowing to Washington’s drug war agenda.
Analysts say Palma’s case may soon become a legal and diplomatic test, not only of Mexico’s ability to prosecute high-level narcos, but also of the US’s growing reliance on opaque cyberwarfare in its battle against transnational crime.
Previously, published an exclusive report, detailing Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s legal challenge to his 2019 conviction, in which he alleged that his extradition to the United States violated international legal protocols and that his trial was marred by due process failures.
