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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been three years since El Chapo\u2019s deadliest hitman was found lying dead alongside his sister and her husband \u2013 but his life should and could have been so different.<\/p>\n
Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa \u2013 who became known as El Chino Antrax \u2013 grew up in Cliac\u00e1n, Sinaloa, the home of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico\u2019s most powerful drug trafficking group.<\/p>\n
And perhaps El Chino\u2019s destiny was set from the off because he was neighbours with one of cartel\u2019s leaders Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Inside El Chapo hit squad Los Antrax after death of Kim K lookalike with pink AK-47 <\/b><\/p>\n
For more stories on El Chapo and the Sinaloa Cartel you can read them here. <\/b><\/p>\n
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A young Jose played with El Mayo\u2019s sons and they went to school together. But despite this, his own family wanted him to go his own path, and for a while he did.<\/p>\n
His father was an upstanding citizen who worked for the Sinaloa government and held roles such as commissioner of communal lands and treasurer of state highways. Meanwhile, Jose\u2019s mother had a master\u2019s degree while his siblings all grew up to obtain university degrees.<\/p>\n
But before becoming El Chino Antrax, Jose strived for a dream career as a military pilot but his skin condition, psoriasis, meant he was inutil a la patria<\/i> , meaning useless to his homeland. <\/p>\n
He then followed in his family\u2019s academic footsteps by studying architecture but dropped out after three years when he needed money to support his young family.<\/p>\n
And his wife later wrote in a letter to court: \u201cI believe [getting married young] is what forced Rodrigo to look for other options to provide for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the option of living next door to the cartel was \u201cmore prosperous\u201d and she added: \u201cI can\u2019t explain it to you because it was a conversation we never talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He then joined the Sinaloa Cartel as a low level member and according to his lawyer he \u201cran errands\u201d \u2013 but he eventually got promoted by El Mayo Zambada who hired him to be a bodyguard to his son.<\/p>\n
And it wasn\u2019t long before he became head of Los Antrax \u2013 the brutal assassin wing of El Chapo\u2019s and El Mayo\u2019s cartel that was named after nerve agent anthrax.<\/p>\n
The hit squad wore diamond studded skull rings and they answered to drug lord Joaqu\u00edn 'El Chapo' Guzm\u00e1n who is now serving a life sentence in Colorado.<\/p>\n
And from the outside, Jose, now known as El Chino, did his best to show the world that his new found position of power in the cartel gave him total luxury.<\/p>\n
He showed off his lavish lifestyle on social media where he posted pictures of guns and fancy cars and he also travelled the world for big events like the Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios boxing match in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n
But to afford such extravagance, he had to get his hands well and truly dirty to protect El Mayo \u2013 something which inevitably became his downfall.<\/p>\n
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His Los Antrax squad was ordered to back the Sinaloa Cartel in a shootout with rival drugs gang the Beltran Leyva Cartel in Tubutama, Sonora, in a deadly scene that left up to 30 people dead.<\/p>\n
Then, just one year later, the true extent of how barbaric Los Antrax was became clear during a gunfight with the Mexican Army in southern Culiacan.<\/p>\n
Horrified cops freed kidnapping victims from a nearby safe house including a woman, five-year-old girl and a man who had his toes and ears mutilated. Then after cartel member Arce Rubio was murdered at a football game, the hit squad escalated the violence to a whole new level.<\/p>\n
Up to 20 murders were reported almost immediately after Rubio\u2019s death \u2013 and three bodies were even found hanging from a bridge. One victim had been tortured and was riddled with bullets while two others were kept in a freezer before being dumped.<\/p>\n
His crimes eventually caught up with him after a US led operation into the leading members of the Sinaloa Cartel where nearly $28 million in drug proceeds was seized. And El Chino meanwhile was arrested in Amsterdam in December 2013 after trying to enter the country using a fake name.<\/p>\n
He had also underwent a plastic surgery transformation to alter his appearance and even tried to alter his fingerprints when he realised the law was catching up with him.<\/p>\n
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The hitman and drug trafficker was later extradited to the states and pleaded guilty to shipping cocaine and marijuana from Mexico to America, as well as being a violent enforcer for the cartel.<\/p>\n
Before he was caged, he pleaded with the judge: \u201cI\u2019m truly ashamed … I promise you I will never again go the wrong way. I would like to be able to work honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
And his role as leader of Los Anthrax was confirmed by US Attorney's Office Southern District of California. Their statement read: \u201cArechiga-Gamboa is believed to have worked for the Sinaloa Cartel as the leader of a violent enforcement arm of the Sinaloa Cartel called \u2018Los Antrax\u2019 and a key lieutenant of Mayo.\u201d <\/p>\n
He was released in March 2020 under house arrest before his probation officer reported him missing.<\/p>\n
El Chino managed to make it back to Sinaloa but months after he went awol he was found shot dead inside an SUV alongside his sister and her husband. His murder was reportedly ordered by senior cartel leaders.<\/p>\n
Despite his brutal downfall, the Sinaloa Cartel is still believed to be operating strong today. And while El Chapo serves a life sentence in Colorado, his sons allegedly continue to rule the drugs game on behalf of the deadly group.<\/p>\n
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And the cartel has no shortage of hitmen like Los Antrax, which was demonstrated back in January after El Chapo\u2019s son, Ovidio Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez, was arrested in January. That\u2019s because his capture led to violence erupting in Sinaloa where 30 people perished.<\/p>\n
Known as El Rat\u00f3n, or 'the Mouse', he was extradited to the US last month and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges.<\/p>\n
El Rat\u00f3n is accused of taking over a large fraction of the Sinaloa Cartel after his dad\u2019s arrest and him and his three brothers \u2013 Iv\u00e1n Archivaldo Guzm\u00e1n Salazar, Jes\u00fas Alfredo Guzm\u00e1n Salazar and Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez \u2013 are collectively known as Los Chapitos.<\/p>\n
Alongside El Chapo\u2019s son, the cartel is also believed to be led by Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, the man who convinced El Chino to ditch architecture to do his dirty work.<\/p>\n
In hindsight, perhaps El Chino would have been better off staying in university, and his wild life shows that living next door to the cartel doesn\u2019t always pay off after losing his life aged 39.<\/p>\n