*GUILTY* EL Chapo - Drug Cartel Chief, arrested Trafficking/conspiracy/firearms

[Forager]

Autodefensas Detain Sicario Along With Army Lieutenant.
This story, on Borderland Beat, 1/27/16 is a translation of a story that originally appeared in Proceso: Detectan comunitarios a presunto “Viagra” acompañando a un teniente del Ejército on 1/26/16.

"The Community Police of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán spotted a subject, an alleged member of the criminal group “Los Viagras”, disguised as a Mexican Military Soldier and who was also accompanied by a lieutenant of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA).

Both were arrested by comunitarios (community members) while they were aboard a cloned Mexican Military vehicle with serial number: 3317356... . "

The "community members" belonged to "Autodefensas" a group of fairly average Mexican citizens in Michoacán who have gotten together to stand up to the cartels. They are somewhere between vigilantes and Websleuthers, and seem to have had a real impact.

* Sicario = an ancient Roman term that essentially translates as "enforcer" or "hit man", and the name of a movie about contemporary crime in Mexico.

 

[Forager]

Autodefensas Detain Sicario Along With Army Lieutenant.
This story, on Borderland Beat, 1/27/16 is a translation of a story that originally appeared in Proceso: Detectan comunitarios a presunto “Viagra” acompañando a un teniente del Ejército on 1/26/16.

"The Community Police of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán spotted a subject, an alleged member of the criminal group “Los Viagras”, disguised as a Mexican Military Soldier and who was also accompanied by a lieutenant of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA).

Both were arrested by comunitarios (community members) while they were aboard a cloned Mexican Military vehicle with serial number: 3317356... . "

The "community members" belonged to "Autodefensas" a group of fairly average Mexican citizens in Michoacán who have gotten together to stand up to the cartels. They are somewhere between vigilantes and Websleuthers, and seem to have had a real impact.

* Sicario = an ancient Roman term that essentially translates as "enforcer" or "hit man", and the name of a movie about contemporary crime in Mexico.

I reposted this to restore links that somehow got lost and add this pic. of the "Sicario".


The sicario of Los Viagras, dressed as a soldier. An Autodefensa spokesman said that they managed to identify him because he had a full beard and a mustache. The military “do not use the type of beard of sicarios.”

 

[0101ABA]

​Drug lord 'El Chapo' moved to prison near U.S. border

Convicted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early Saturday.

The Sinaloa cartel boss was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, a security official told The Associated Press, without giving a reason for the transfer. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...o-guzman-moved-prison-juarez-mexico/84069016/

 

[0101ABA]

MEXICO CITY — A federal judge has ruled that the extradition of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman can move ahead, Mexico's Judicial Council said Monday. But the country's Foreign Relations Department must still approve it and the defense can appeal.

The council, which oversees Mexico's federal judges and tribunals, said the judge, who it did not name, had agreed that the legal requirements laid out in the extradition treaty between the two countries had been met.

The Foreign Relations Department has 20 days to decide whether to approve Guzman's extradition to the United States.

http://www.wral.com/mexico-judge-says-el-chapo-extradition-may-proceed/15693644/

 

[Everyday Grace]

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department announced the move in a statement Friday afternoon, saying that the government has agreed to send Guzmán to the United States to face charges in Texas and California for murder, money laundering, weapons possession, distribution of cocaine and other crimes. It said Mexico had received guarantees that the death penalty, which is prohibited in Mexico, would not be sought against Guzmán.

Guzman’s lawyers are almost certain to appeal the decision. Mexican officials expect it could take months before any extradition actually occurs.

The move marks a major development for the Mexican government and its most important prisoner.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...f3dcee-1ebb-11e6-82c2-a7dcb313287d_story.html

 

[Everyday Grace]

Guzman faces charges from seven US federal prosecutors. He is also accused of money-laundering, and arms and drugs possession.

His lawyer, Juan Pablo Badillo, told Reuters news agency he would file "many" legal challenges in the coming days.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36348235

 

[Everyday Grace]

A new abbreviated history of El Chapo from CNN:

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, known as "El Chapo," was born in La Tuna, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico sometime in the 1950s. (Officials have released conflicting birth dates). In the 1970s, Guzman began his life of organized crime, working for prominent drug lords including Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, the leader of the Guadalajara cartel, who recruited Guzman in the 1980s.

Guzman's mentor Felix Gallardo was arrested in 1989. At the time of his arrest, the powerful, sprawling Guadalajara Cartel was being split into individually-controlled factions. The faction under Guzman's control became the Sinaloa Cartel, which in the ensuing years moved billions upon billions of dollars in marijuana, cocaine and heroin. It is during this time that Guzman's activities were first detected by the United States.

Years of warring between the Sinaloa and Tijuana Cartels came to a violent head in May of 1993 when gunmen from the Tijuana cartel opened fire on a car near the Guadalajara International Airport. They believed Guzman was hiding in the car, but it was actually Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, the Cardinal and Archbishop of Guadalajara.

Following Posadas Ocampo's death, the Mexican government launched a manhunt to find his killers. In the process, pictures of Guzman were widely publicized for the first time. This public "outing" forced Guzman to flee to Guatemala. He reportedly paid a $1.2 million bribe to the Guatemalan military to protect him.

Later that month [May 2016], a Mexican judge approved the U.S. request to extradite Guzman. Guzman's lead attorney tells CNN his legal team will appeal, and the process could take years to be resolved. The cartel kingpin faces federal charges in seven U.S. states. It's not immediately clear when Guzman will be turned over to U.S. custody, but once he's transferred, Guzman will be sent to Brooklyn to stand trial, U.S. officials have told CNN.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/01/world/a-history-of-el-chapos-reign/

Felix Gallardo's arrest in 1989 was related to his role in the 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena in Guadalajara.

For many analysts, the Camarena killing marked a key turning point in the fight against drug trafficking in Mexico.

First, it broke up the Guadalajara cartel into splinter groups, which formed the basis of today's powerful drug organisations.

Among them is the Sinaloa cartel, led by a former protege of Felix Gallardo, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, currently considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.

Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, it marked a new level of brazenness by the cartels.

For Camarena's former boss, however, the extent of the violence currently experienced in Mexico is simply evidence that the lessons from the mid-1980s, about breaking down the links between state institutions and the drug traffickers, were never learned.

"Unfortunately Kiki's death didn't have the impact it should have had."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-16920870

 

[Everyday Grace]

And the beat goes on...

Scores of gunmen have looted the house of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s mother, forcing residents to flee the cartel kingpin’s hometown in the mountains of Mexico’s western state of Sinaloa, according to local media reports.

Around 150 heavily armed men raided the remote village of La Tuna on Saturday [June 11], cutting telephone connections and pillaging the home of the capo’s 86-year old mother, Consuelo Loera de Guzmán. Several vehicles were taken from the house.

Two other communities were targeted in the attack, which left at least three people dead, according to the well-connected Sinaloa news organizations Ríodoce.

State governor Mario López Váldez confirmed to reporters that an armed group had entered La Tuna but said it appeared to be a family conflict, not a settling of scores by criminal organisations. He said there were no reports of shootouts or deaths due to the incursion.

Perhaps "just" a family issue.

Or perhaps more complex as a known beef exists within the family between two of El Chapo's brothers and the descendants of a half-brother. One of those descendants married into the Beltran Leyva family; her eldest son is Alfredo Beltran Guzman.

(His father, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, is in US custody awaiting sentencing later this month on drug trafficking charges related to his activities on behalf of the Beltran Leyva Cartel and for Sinaloa prior to a 2008 split between the two DTOs)

Sources told Ríodoce the assailants belonged to the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, which splintered from the Sinaloa Cartel and – though weakened – is still engaged in a bitter conflict with its former allies.

“If it’s true that Chapo’s mother was actually targeted, then it bodes terribly for security in coming months,” Beith said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/16/el-chapo-mother-house-looted-gunmen-drug-cartel

Riodice reported the attack was organized by members of the Beltran Leyva Organization and by Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, who is known as "Chapito."

The BLO was part of Guzman's Sinaloa cartel until 2008. "Chapito" is believed to have organized a criminal group called "Oficina" that consists of former members of cartels, including from the Zetas, the Gulf cartel and the BLO.

Meza Flores' criminal enterprise is considered the primary rival of Guzman's Sinaloa cartel in the state.

"As a result of this rivalry, the Meza Flores [drug trafficking organization] has engaged in an extremely violent turf war with the Sinaloa Cartel which has resulted in the quadrupling of drug-war killings in the last four years and an increase in kidnappings and arson within the state of Sinaloa," the U.S. Department of Treasury said in a 2013 statement, adding that the group "has been responsible for the distribution of large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana, and cocaine to the United States" since 2000.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...house-raided-in-La-Tuna-Mexico/1751466094509/

 

[0101ABA]

Watch "Got Shorty: Inside the Chase for El Chapo," a special report from CNN's Chris Cuomo, on July 5 at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.

The notorious cartel boss hid in a laundry cart the first time he broke out of prison -- or so the story goes.

The next time, he slipped out through an underground tunnel and rode a motorcycle to freedom.

The brazen escapes, and the stories that swirled about them afterward, cemented Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera's place as a mythical figure in Mexico's criminal underworld.

His nickname means "Shorty," but there's no shortage of tall tales about the Sinaloa cartel kingpin.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/26/americas/el-chapo-guzman-profile/

 

[Irisha]

No he didn't escape again............... HOAX................http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/No-El-Chapo-didn-t-escape-again-6796806.php

 

[kmclaren]

No he didn't escape again............... HOAX................http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/No-El-Chapo-didn-t-escape-again-6796806.php

Yeah, soon as I saw he was supposedly being transferred by 2 brand new guards I was skeptical...

 

[Everyday Grace]

And the beat goes on.

The son of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is presumed to be among the half-dozen kidnapped from a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta Monday, Mexican officials said Tuesday.

Jalisco Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer told Radio Formula that "it is presumed," though not yet certain, that Ivan Archivaldo Guzman was among those kidnapped around 1 a.m. at La Leche restaurant on the city's main boulevard by five gunmen.

Experts say Ivan Guzman took over parts of his father's business when the Sinaloa cartel leader was arrested in January.

Authorities believe those involved in the kidnapping are part of cartels.

The prosecutor refused to name the groups involved, but said abductees were from Sinaloa, Nayarit and Jalisco.

http://m.mysanantonio.com/news/us-w...could-be-among-those-kidnapped-in-9145340.php

A group of six or seven people suspected to be members of Guzman's feared Sinaloa Cartel were abducted by eight armed men from an upscale eatery in the heart of the resort early on Monday.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN10R1JZ

He said the abduction was the work of a “criminal group” that operates in the area, and while he would not identify the gang by name, the largest group operating in the state is the Jalisco New Generation cartel.

The Jalisco cartel has grown quickly to rival Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel as the most powerful of Mexico’s drug gangs.

Experts say there could be other reasons why someone would want to kidnap the younger Guzman. Ivan Archivaldo had reportedly been running roughshod over allies in his father’s business, and had the reputation of a braggart, showing off expensive liquor, clothes, guns and cars on social media, something that could have angered more traditional traffickers who keep a lower profile.

“Ivan Archivaldo was, I believe, a bit crazy,” said Raul Benitez, a security specialist who teaches political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. “He spent all his time posting things on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter. A serious narco doesn’t do that.”

A Facebook account under his name, which could not be corroborated as authentic, shows photos of assault rifles pistols cocaine and expensive cognac.

“He was a ‘junior'” — a term Mexicans use to describe privileged youths — Benitez said. “He didn’t have the ability to run the cartel.”

http://nbc4i.com/2016/08/16/el-chap...16-kidnapped-from-puerto-vallarta-restaurant/

Alejandro Hope, a Mexico City-based security analyst, said that while Jalisco New Generation controls the area, it would be possible for another group to enter the city.

Hope also called it odd that a group of alleged cartel members would be taken without a shot being fired.

“It’s a bit surprising that in effect they were drug traffickers but didn’t have any security,” Hope said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/16/el-chapo-son-kidnapped-ivan-archivaldo-guzman-mexico

Or security has been purchased and switched alliances.

 

[0101ABA]

A lawyer for Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman said Monday he will argue that his client has been the victim of torture.

Attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez said the convicted Sinaloa cartel boss’ legal team has submitted evidence of alleged abusive treatment of Guzman in prison.

“Cruel and unusual treatment is torture,” Rodriguez said.

Guzman’s lawyers and family have complained in the past that he is not being allowed to sleep, mix with other prisoners or receive enough visits. They said that caused him anxiety and elevated his blood pressure to dangerous levels.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/joaquin-el-chapo-guzman-tortured-prison-lawyer-claims/

:violin: Pretty sure many of El Chapo's victims are the ones who were actually tortured. I cannot find within me even one ounce of sympathy for him.

 

[0101ABA]

The Mexican judge who handled several legal challenges filed by lawyers for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, as well as other high-profile drug cases, has been fatally shot, Reuters reports.

Judge Vicente Bermudez was shot in the head outside his home Monday, dying soon after.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/el-chapo-case-judge-involved-shot-dead-report/

 

[tlcya]

BREAKING: Drug lord "El Chapo" Guzman being extradited to the U.S.; is in the air right now, spokeswoman for the Mexican Attorney General confirms to ABC News. http://abcn.ws/2iPyOBs

 

[liz b.]

BREAKING: Drug lord "El Chapo" Guzman being extradited to the U.S.; is in the air right now, spokeswoman for the Mexican Attorney General confirms to ABC News. http://abcn.ws/2iPyOBs

Sounds wonderful...

 

[bessie]

Hope he makes it all the way into the system. One can never be sure with El Chapo.

 

[0101ABA]

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is to be in federal court in person Friday in New York.

A judge ruled last week that Guzman would appear in court by video rather than have marshals escort him to and from a high-security Manhattan jail cell. But his lawyers asked the judge to reconsider. A new order was issued Wednesday.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2017/02/01/el-chapo-prosecution/97343868/

 

[glf]

Sounds like a little jail house justice would come in handy...

 

[0101ABA]

Judge sets El Chapo trial for April 2018

A Brooklyn federal judge set an April 2018 trial date for Mexican drug lord Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman.

Federal prosecutors told Judge Brian Cogan on Friday that they need up to three months to pin the boatload of charges on Guzman, which would put him away for life.