A feared enforcer for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s cartel who previously had plastic surgery to evade capture has gone missing in California — just two months after he was released on probation, according to a report.
Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa — known as “El Chino Antrax,” or “the Chinese Anthrax” — was supposed to be under federal supervision for the next five years after his release March 3, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
But he was missing when a probation officer went to his new home for a scheduled check-in on Wednesday — as were all his belongings, except for a cellphone, the paper said, citing court documents.
Gamboa — whom prosecutors previously hailed as “one of the highest-ranking Sinaloa Cartel kingpins ever prosecuted in the United States” — has a record of taking extreme steps to evade capture.
When he was busted in Amsterdam in 2013, he was using a fake passport — and had “significant plastic surgery” as well as attempts to “alter his fingerprints,” prosecutors said at the time.
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A bench warrant was issued this week for his arrest, the Union-Tribune said. The federal court filing did not say where he had been living when he “apparently absconded,” the paper said.
Probation authorities are recommending nine more months behind bars if he is caught, the paper said. The affidavit says he previously mentioned plans to flee to his family in Mexico.