The Trial of Mexican 'Drug Lord El Chapo'

The trial of Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as “El Chapo,” kicked off on Tuesday in New York City.

El Chapo is the drug lord infamous for escaping a Mexican prison via a tunnel in 2015.

Inside El Chapo’s Escape Tunnel ( Video Footage)

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“What El Chapo was really like — according to one of his closest henchman”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What El Chapo was really like — according to one of his closest henchman <a href="https://t.co/qWJFudqcDd">pic.twitter.com/qWJFudqcDd</a></p>&mdash; Business Insider (@businessinsider) <a href="https://twitter.com/businessinsider/status/1064199051313180673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Brooklyn Bridge closed as HSBC client El Chapo is taken to court.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Brooklyn Bridge closed as HSBC client El Chapo is taken to court. <a href="https://t.co/qovQ7HL7ei">pic.twitter.com/qovQ7HL7ei</a></p>&mdash; Mr Ethical (@nw_nicholas) <a href="https://twitter.com/nw_nicholas/status/1064212624475373568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

El Chapo’s trial has begun:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">El Chapo’s trial begins today in Brooklyn <a href="https://t.co/SkUUlCsWn3">pic.twitter.com/SkUUlCsWn3</a></p>&mdash; Dirty Glove Bastard (@DGBastard) <a href="https://twitter.com/DGBastard/status/1062360955068301314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Related Coverage: <a href="https://thegoldwater.com/news/42663"> El Chapo’s Wife ‘Mexican Kim Kardashian’ Changes Social Media Profile During Trial </a>

The week was full of crazy details.

<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2016/10/15/el-chapo-is-coming-to-america-in-early-2017/"> Guzman, </a>. 61,

<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/12/el-chapo-trial-drugs-mexico/"> faces a 17-count indictment on charges </a> including drug trafficking and murder conspiracy.

If convicted of each charge, Guzman could wind up in prison for life.

The U.S. Treasury Department has called Guzman the most “powerful drug trafficker in the world” for his role in distributing cocaine, marijuana, heroin, methamphetamine and more.

Guzman’s defense team claims he is merely a pawn whose power in the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel has been exaggerated, reported <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/nyregion/el-chapo-trial-brooklyn.html"> The New York Times </a>.

Federal prosecutors argue the evidence hasn’t been exaggerated. Guzman is accused of trafficking over 440,000 pounds of cocaine. There are 100,000 audio recordings the feds plan to use against him and may have $14 billion in assets seized by U.S. officials, reported NBC News.

Guzman has claimed to be responsible for the deaths of two to three thousand people, <a href="https://www-m.cnn.com/2017/01/18/world/joaqun-el-chapo-guzmn-fast-facts/index.html"> reported CNN </a>.

Here are some of the highlights covered in the first week of Guzman’s trial:

Guzman’s “weapons of choice” were a diamond-encrusted pistol engraved with his initials and a gold-plated AK-47. (The liberals will love that piece of information).

Witness Jesus Zambada, a former accountant for Guzman’s cartel, said Guzman took great pleasure in taking out his rivals, even ordering hits on his own family.

Guzman’s nickname, “El Chapo,” which means “Shorty,” but he was never short on protection. He had his own private army.

The prosecution would show jurors evidence of seized narcotics totaling “more than a line of cocaine for every single person in the United States,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Fels said. To put that in perspective, there are approximately 327.6 million people in the U.S. (data from 11, 2018).

U.S. Attorney Fels said Guzman made billions of dollars trafficking cocaine through partnerships with Colombian cartels.

One Of Guzman’s Lawyers Represented John Gotti Jr.

A. Eduardo Balarezo, “experienced in drug-trafficking and mob cases, is the leader of Guzman’s defense team.

Guzman’s attorneys, Jeffrey Lichtman, previously work for famous defendants including mob boss John Gotti Jr. and rapper The Game.

Guzman hired Lichtman in August 2017. Lichtman is known for getting Gotti acquitted of several counts including securities fraud and kidnapping in 2005.

Lichtman convinced jurors that the prosecution’s witnesses were untrustworthy, a “parade of ex-mobsters.”

Well, if the jury was full of liberals then that isn’t hard to believe.

“The fact is they built a case on the backs of psychotics,” Lichtman said in 2005. “Altogether they committed about 30 murders, these guys, and some of them are walking among us. The jury rejected that approach.”

Lichtman took this same approach in Guzman’s trial by painting cooperating witnesses as “people who will make your skin crawl.”

Lichtman said, former drug trafficker Miguel Angel Martinez did four grams of cocaine a day. Alex Cifuentes, another witness, used to work for notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

“This case is built on a foundation of lies,” he said.

This trial will most assuredly be interesting.

One juror was excused after claiming she couldn't be impartial, saying, 'I feel very bad about drugs.'

A Michael Jackson impersonator, another juror, prosecutors expressed some concern his identity couldn't be kept secret. For the time being, he was kept in the jury pool.

There is the issue of keeping key eyewitnesses safe for their testimony against Guzman.

Prosecutors are seeking to hide the identity of cooperating witnesses due to concerns the cartel could seek retribution.

The prosecution has redacted the names of eyewitnesses on court documents, but there is speculation that Pedro and Margarito Flores, former narcotics wholesalers who did business with Guzman before their arrest in 2008, could testify.

Capture of El Chapo (Video)

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Photos below:

<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/284d513eea614ae67ca3997bc03b322d6681202aa139af717382c8e9141bd622.jpeg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">

<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit:<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356451/Armed-guards-bomb-sniffing-dogs-Brooklyn-Bridge-shut-Mexican-drug-lord-El-Chapo-jury-selection.html"> DailyMail </a></span

U.S. law enforcement, authorities escorted "El Chapo", center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at a Long Island airport after he was extricated to the US in 2017

<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/731d17d51d6dd2d5f4856cc7cba3ab3101d856ca73d10b63309f90b4dbb8db95.jpeg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">

<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit:<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356451/Armed-guards-bomb-sniffing-dogs-Brooklyn-Bridge-shut-Mexican-drug-lord-El-Chapo-jury-selection.html"> DailyMail </a></span

After two massive prison breaks by El Chapo in Mexico, authorities in the US are taking every precaution to keep their notorious prisoner behind bars. At the Eastern District Federal Court in Brooklyn, a swarm of heavy officers blockaded the entrance-way

<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/2e16a401d1d0c896509cc05c349262f7df2f8fd8d3883ca7cc02fdeeb3e6b4b6.jpeg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">

<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit:<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356451/Armed-guards-bomb-sniffing-dogs-Brooklyn-Bridge-shut-Mexican-drug-lord-El-Chapo-jury-selection.html"> DailyMail </a></span

Bomb-sniffing dogs were inside and on the perimeter of the federal court, as El Chapo sat in on jury selection

<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/fe1da54c9c1f48a7fa3867ae35dc2af3d7bed7fe24ef927966faa7f496b2ce02.jpeg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">

<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit:<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356451/Armed-guards-bomb-sniffing-dogs-Brooklyn-Bridge-shut-Mexican-drug-lord-El-Chapo-jury-selection.html"> DailyMail </a></span

Federal law enforcement vehicles lined the streets near the federal court

<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/ddf2ce5a8f0bd76d107e4879d9c0eafc00b6a35f30b41e072ae37bfc76bf84bc.jpeg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">

<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit:<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356451/Armed-guards-bomb-sniffing-dogs-Brooklyn-Bridge-shut-Mexican-drug-lord-El-Chapo-jury-selection.html"> DailyMail </a></span

El Chapo has been held in solitary confinement in a high-security federal cell at the Manhattan Correctional Center since January 2017

<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/ce2ea2f88da3ec1b0d3a99d0d5153be2be7fcf060504648ce0798ec443d3fa3e.jpeg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">

<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit:<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356451/Armed-guards-bomb-sniffing-dogs-Brooklyn-Bridge-shut-Mexican-drug-lord-El-Chapo-jury-selection.html"> DailyMail </a></span

The route authorities need to take to get Guzman from his high-security cell in Manhattan to Brooklyn is filled with logistical issues, including the need to shut down the bridge to transport him completely securely

The trial is expected to last for approximately four months. Stay tuned for continued coverage.

Related Sources:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna871066; https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/11/14/el-chapo-guzman-trial-new-york-mexican-drug-cartel/1997510002/; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6396567/El-Chapo-bragged-got-pleasure-killing-rival-cartel-leader.html; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6386739/Mexican-presidents-accused-defense-opens-El-Chapo-trial.html; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mexico-el-chapo/el-chapo-is-a-scapegoat-for-drug-lord-who-bribed-mexicos-president-lawyer-idUSKCN1NI18V; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001852.html?noredirect=on; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6356451/Armed-guards-bomb-sniffing-dogs-Brooklyn-Bridge-shut-Mexican-drug-lord-El-Chapo-jury-selection.html

<b>By: Lexy </b>

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