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8A Monday, December 3, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
NATION
‘El Chapo’ trial gives inside look at rise to power
U.S. LAW ENFORCEMENT, AUTHORITIES I Associated Press
Authorities escort Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of
SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., Jan. 19, 2017. On Monday,
Nov. 26, a government witness testifying at the U.S. trial of the Mexican drug lord known as
“El Chapo” claims his cartel paid massive bribes to a top law enforcement official.
BY TOM HAYS
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The U.S.
trial of Joaquin “El Chapo”
Guzman has offered a
screenplay-worthy pic
ture of the lawlessness and
excesses during his rise to
power as Mexico’s most infa
mous drug lord.
Since the trial got under
way on Nov. 13, witnesses
have described how Guz
man used tunnels dug under
the border and fake jala-
peno cans to smuggle tons
of cocaine into the United
States during the 1990s and
early 2000s.
The Sinaloa cartel, some
times referred to by insid
ers as “The Federation,”
made hundreds of millions
of dollars, most of it in U.S.
currency collected in such
volume it had to be stashed
in safe houses while the gang
figured out what to do with
it. Guzman spent some of it
on a private zoo, a diamond-
encrusted pistol and paying
off police and politicians.
That’s all according to
a cast of characters who
have taken the witness stand
ranging from former cartel
members to a Colombian
drug kingpin with a freakish
face that he chose to alter
with plastic surgery in a
failed attempt to stay under
the radar.
Here’s a look at some tes
timony highlights from the
trial, which is expected to
last until early next year:
SMUGGLING
BY THE TON
The Sinaloa cartel had
many crafty ways to smug
gle drugs across the border,
but perhaps none were craft
ier than La Comadre brand
pepper cans.
Former cartel member
Miguel Angel Martinez tes
tified in federal court in
Brooklyn he helped super
vise a warehouse in Mexico
City where workers hid
cocaine in the cans so it
could be trucked over the
border.
The trucks carried 3,000
cans at a time to Los Ange
les, he said. He estimated
about 25 to 30 tons of cocaine
worth $400 to $500 million
got across the border each
year.
Behind the scenes, the
workers packing the coke
into the cans “got intoxi
cated because whenever
you would press the kilos, it
would release cocaine into
the air.”
Proceeds ended up in
Tijuana, where Guzman
would send his three private
jets every month to pick it
up, Martinez said. On aver
age, each plane would carry
up to $10 million home.
The cash, he said, helped
pay for luxuries like an Aca
pulco beach house featuring
a private zoo and a trip to
Switzerland for Guzman to
get an exotic “anti-aging”
treatment.
BRIBERY AS USUAL
A turncoat cartel member
named Jesus Zambada took
the stand to describe how
he kept watch over tons of
cocaine stashed in a Mexico
City warehouse. But a more
important job for him was
buying off authorities at
a cost of about $300,000 a
month — a price that earned
Guzman a police escort after
one of his notorious escapes
from prison.
He testified that Guzman
looked troubled at the sight
of the Mexico City police
approaching the car. “Don’t
worry about it,” Zambada
told Guzman. “These are our
people. No one is going to
touch us from here on out.”
Testimony suggested the
prisons were on the take,
too. Martinez claimed when
he and Guzman visited a
drug boss behind bars, other
inmates had put together a
lavish meal.
“There was a music group
and they had everything,
whatever you would want
to eat. Whiskey, cognac,”
Martinez said. “You could
choose between lobster and
sirloin and pheasant.”
THE MASK
The latest star witness for
the government has been
more notable for his appear
ance than his testimony.
Former Colombian
drug lord Juan Carlos
Ramirez Abadia is perhaps
best known for his plastic
surgery.
He told the jury last week
that he has had at least three
surgeries to change his
appearance.
The work altered “my
jawbone, my cheekbones,
my eyes, my mouth, my
ears, my nose,” he said.
His testimony made a case
for ranking him at the top of
the narco-patheon with Guz
man: He said he smuggled
881,840 pounds, ordered
150 killings and amassed
a fortune so large that he
forfeited $1 billion after his
arrest in Brazil in 2007.
Ramirez Abadia said
he had a cartel business
model that included a divi
sion entirely devoted to
using drug money to bribe
authorities to “not do their
jobs” to enforce drug laws.
He testified that it was
clear Guzman had similar
arrangements when he flew
planes loaded with Colom
bian cocaine to Mexico,
where they were greeted by
police officers who helped
unload the goods.
Ramirez Abadia resumes
testifying on Monday.
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