Joaquin Guzman Loera, suspected head of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, is pictured in this undated file photo.Handout/Mexican General Attorney
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He is Mexico's most wanted man, believed to be the biggest supplier of cocaine to the United States, a drug lord that has presided over a turf war that has claimed thousands of lives.
But today, Joaquin Guzman Loera is in the news for an altogether different reason: It is believed he is the father of twin girls born Aug. 15th in Southern California.
Mr. Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, gave birth to her daughters at Antelope Valley Hospital in northern Los Angeles according to a report today in the Los Angeles Times.
Ms. Coronel, a California-born former beauty queen, returned to Mexico shortly after the twins were born. The children, however, will be entitled to U.S. citizenship because they were born in California.
Mr. Guzman and Ms. Coronel married in 2007 at a lavish wedding in the highlands of central Mexico where no expense was spared.
Last year, Forbes listed Mr. Guzman – nicknamed "Shorty" – as the world's 937th richest man, with an estimated net worth of $1-billion.
While U.S. authorities have placed a $5-million bounty on Mr. Guzman, they had no cause to arrest his wife when she check-in to Antelope Valley Hospital, although her stay there and subsequent return to Mexico was closely monitored by U.S. federal agents.
On the girls' birth certificate, Ms. Coronel printed her own name, but the space for "Name of Father" was left blank.