Lucero Sanchez, former mistress of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, told U.S. federal prosecutors in New York that the cartel king‑pin had once aspired to become a singer with Banda El Recodo—an admission that surfaced during the 2018‑2019 federal trial that ended with Guzmán’s conviction on ten counts.
She first met Guzmán in 2010 when she was 20, and the two dated until 2014. Their relationship unfolded in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and later she entered state politics as a lawmaker. Court filings detail her role as a co‑operator and witness in the drug‑trafficking case.
According to Sanchez, Guzmán would hum songs by Los Canelos and Los Alegres, insisting that his ambition was to join Don Cruz Lizarraga’s Banda El Recodo before he was pulled into the drug trade. She said he told her that becoming a trafficker was not his dream in his youth.
The testimony adds a human dimension to the case, illustrating how Guzmán’s early life in a poor farming village in La Tuna, Badiraguato, deprived him of education and opportunity. The court used her statements to paint a fuller picture of the cartel leader’s transformation.
The judge, in his sentencing decision on February 12, 2019, cited the testimony among the factors that weighed on Guzmán’s fate, reinforcing the prosecution’s narrative that his rise was a product of systemic failure rather than personal ambition. The case was later transferred to the United States Sentencing Commission for final review.