El Chapo Guzman's Bear, Seized From His Ranch In The Nineties, Has Died

"Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from INFOBAE 

"Ulises" was an American black bear that had been at the Villa Fantasia Environmental Management Unit since 1993.

The bear was more than 30 years old. Photo: Facebook/proteccionanimalzapopan

Protección Animal de Zapopan, Jalisco, reported that Ulises, an American black bear that had been at the Villa Fantasía Environmental Management Unit since 1993, died this week. The animal belonged to Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and now serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

Through its Facebook account, Protección Animal de Zapopan announced the death of the animal, which was more than 30 years old.

"He was over 30 years old! More than the average life span for this species. Here he had all the necessary care, and a team of specialized experts who always took care of his well-being. This week, Ulises passed away and we are going to miss him very much", reads part of the October 27 publication, which also mentioned that the animal arrived at the UMA after a seizure in 1993.

According to El Imparcial, the bear belonged to El Chapo Guzmán, after it was seized from one of his properties in 1993.

Photo: facebook/proteccionanimalzapopan

El Economista newspaper reported that when Guzmán Loera was captured for the first time in the aforementioned year, Mexican authorities dismantled a zoo on one of his properties where there were pumas, jaguars, Arabian horses, tigers, lions, deer, reindeer, sheep, ostriches, llamas and peacocks.

During El Chapo's trial in Brooklyn Federal District Court in 2018, the criminal leader's zoo was recalled by one of the US prosecution's cooperating witnesses.

Miguel Angel Martinez Martinez, alias El Gordo or El Tololoche, who was Guzman Loera's pilot and right-hand man from 1986 to 1998, recalled that during the cocaine expansion in the 1990s.

El Gordo noted that the cocaine boom benefited the Sinaloa Cartel, so El Chapo began to compare several properties, fleets of private planes, mansions on Mexican beaches and even a private zoo on a ranch in Guadalajara.

picture: facebook/proteccionanimalzapopan

According to the testimony of this former collaborator Guzmán Loera, El Chapo became so rich that at his ranch in Guadalajara, Jalisco, where there were four swimming pools and a tennis court, he arranged everything necessary to house the zoo with big cats, such as tigers, panthers, lions, as well as deer and this bear.

"The guests would go through it in a little train," Martinez recounted on Tuesday, November 27, 2018, during the seventh day of the trial against the Mexican drug lord held in Brooklyn, New York.

Source: INFOBAE