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

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3h3 hours ago
As recounted by Cifuentes, the plan was to move the coke up from Ecuador inside the Pemex tankers to a Mexican refinery. We'll learn more about it shortly...


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
While the plan didn't work out in the end, Cifuentes said, there were several meetings to discuss it. The idea was proposed by Vincente Zambada Niebla, the son of Mayo Zambada, Chapo's chief partner. Vincente was the one, Cifuentes said, who had "the connections" to Pemex.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Jorge Cifuentes had all kinds of corrupt connections. After testifying about the aborted coke deal w/ Pemex, he talked about buying drugs from FARC guerrillas in Colombia. Chapo knew the drugs were coming the FARC. "He thought it was fine," Cifuentes said.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 59m59 minutes ago
Cifuentes also said he bribed the Ecuadorian army to move his coke in military trucks from the Ecuador-Colombia border to his warehouses in Quito and Guayaquil. He said he paid Captain Telmo Castro, an Ecuadorian army officer, $100 per kilo to ship the coke south.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 40m40 minutes ago
Fun fact of the day from the Chapo trial:

In the late 90s, after Amado Carrillo Fuentes died in plastic surgery, Mayo Zambada (Chapo's partner) had a Colombian trafficker killed. The reason? The Colombian was too busy building "a mansion" & failed to pay proper respect to Amado.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 38m38 minutes ago
Fun fact (cont.):

The Colombian's partner, Jorge Cifuentes (who is testifying today), complained to Mayo that he had "killed a good man." Mayo didn't quite see it that way. "If he were born again," Mayo told Cifeuentes, "I'd kill him again."
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Highlight from Jorge's latest testimony: El Chapo smoking weed.

They're in the mountains at a pot plantation. Jorge rolls a joint and lights up. Chapo asks, "How does that make you feel?"

Jorge offers him a hit. Chapo takes a puff and says: "This does nothing for me."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Still more testimony to come from Jorge. He talked this afternoon about the cartel's encrypted communication system, his family supplying El Chapo w/ ephedrine to make meth, and a 6-ton cocaine shipment from Ecuador.
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[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
In the afternoon session, Cifuentes admitted bribing the Ecuadorian navy too. The payments were information on the location of American naval forces.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
The scope of the corruption he has testified to is astonishing. Chapo once introduced him, he said, to a guy who ran a catering company at the Bogota airport. The caterer was able to sneak cocaine aboard planes owned by the Mexican airline Aeropostal, run by one of Chapo's men.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Meanwhile, the Mexico Airport was also under also Chapo's control, other witnesses have said. And it wasn't just planes, of course. Cifuentes mentioned this afternoon that Chapo once tried to buy a cruise ship for smuggling. (He didn't in the end.)


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Cifuentes has an engaging anecdotal style. Once, he said, while chatting w/Chapo at his mountain hideout, there was a huge explosion. Turns out, it was one of Chapo's meth labs blowing up.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
While staying w/Chapo, Cifuentes would sometimes roll himself joints from his host's marijuana fields. Once, he said, he offered Chapo a hit. Chapo took the hit. "This does nothing for me," Chapo said.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 11m11 minutes ago
More incredible testimony to end the day from Jorge Cifuentes. He admitted to ordering three murders and said he personally tried to commit one. It was 1984. He was 18 and in prison in Colombia. He was recruited by José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha aka El Mexicano for a hit. #Narcos



Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 7m7 minutes ago
Cifuentes' most brazen scam involved--amazingly--a foundation he created to protect "indigenous people" in the Amazon. It was meant to preserve 7 million hectares of unprotected jungle but in reality was a no-bid deal for his own companies to get up to $1.5 billion in contracts.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4m4 minutes ago
As in often the case w/those in Chapo's orbit, talk of greed was closely followed by talk of violence.
Cifuentes confessed to a bizarre botched murder plot he was involved in when he was in prison at age 18.
It revolved around a cyanide-laced arepa.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4m4 minutes ago
Long story short, Cifuentes volunteered to kill a fellow inmate the Colombian cartels wanted dead. They gave him a gun, a blade, a grenade and some cyanide, allowing him to choose of which weapon he wanted to use. He said he chose "the simplest one"--the poison.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 9m9 minutes ago
The target was suspected of killing pilots and stealing cocaine from the Medellin cartel. They smuggled weapons for the job into the prison. A revolver. Cyanide poison. A blade. A grenade. Why so many? Jorge: "For me to choose which way."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 10m10 minutes ago
The target was suspected of killing pilots and stealing cocaine from the Medellin cartel. They smuggled weapons for the job into the prison.
A revolver.
Cyanide poison.
A blade.
A grenade.
Why so many? Jorge: "For me to choose which way."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3m3 minutes ago
So one day, as the prison cooks were warming up breakfast, he noticed the grill guy had stepped away and made his move. He sprinkled the cyanide one of the arepas just before his victim took it.
But the guy ended up taking two and only ate one--the one w/o the cyanide.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 7m7 minutes ago
Jorge chose the cyanide. One of the prison cooks was making breakfast and asked Jorge to look over the arepas. He sprinkled the cyanide powder on one. The intended target took two. He ate the one without the poison.



Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 36s36 seconds ago
Undeterred, Cifuentes moved on to his 2nd choice of weapon--the grenade. One night, he threw the grenade in his victim's cell. But Colombian prison's had cement-framed beds at the time. The grenade rolled under the bed and the guy survived w/only a little shrapnel in his leg.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Jorge was "getting pressure" from the cartel to finish the job. He decided to use the grenade next .
Only the grenade rolls under the man's bed, which is made of concrete. It absorbs the blast. Guy gets shrapnel in his legs but survives.
After that, Jorge said, "I gave up."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 53s54 seconds ago
But it was hard to blame poor Cifuentes for his crimes seeing as he grew up in a family of criminals. There were even phone calls introduced in court today of Jorge discussing the travails of his drug-dealing life with...his mom.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 51s51 seconds ago
In one, he complained to mom about how the Ecuadorian authorities seized 8 tons of his and Chapo's coke in 2009. "It was a total loss," his mom said, commiserating with him.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 21m21 minutes ago
In a 2nd call (w/his sister, also a trafficker) he groused that their nephew had stolen 225 kilos of Chapo's cocaine.
Jorge, worried, wanted to find it but, according to the sister, their mom said don't bother:
"Why look for the 225 kilos, if we're going to lose them anyway?"
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Another great Jorge story.
He's working w/ Chapo on a shipment of 8 tons of cocaine from Ecuador to Mexico. Chapo is hassling him with demands about how it's sent, and the Ecuadorian army ends up seizing the drugs. They lose everything.
Jorge vows to quit dealing w/ Chapo.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1m1 minute ago
Jorge has been dealing cocaine basically his entire life. So what's he plan to do in retirement?
"I wanted to devote myself to the foundation I created with indigenous people in the Amazon." It's an initiative to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change.
Only not quite.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 5m5 minutes ago
Chapo's defense objects in the middle of Jorge's climate change story. There's a brief conversation with the judge.
When the prosecutor comes back he asks Jorge, "You didn't have completely noble motives with this climate project, did you?" Jorge: "No señor."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Prosecutor: "What were you trying to do besides save the environment?"
Jorge explains he had created a company that would fight deforestation in the Amazon. Only he was paying bribes to get no-bid contracts with the government for 7 million hectares, worth $500M-$1.5 billion.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4m4 minutes ago
Today's session of the Chapo trial had a little of everything: Pemex executives hatching drug deals w/the cartel, a scam involving indigenous people in the Amazon, a meth lab exploding, Chapo smoking pot, a trafficker talking w/his mom & a cyanide-laced arepa.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
So much good stuff from Jorge today. He'll be back on the stand tomorrow. Expecting cross-examination from El Chapo's lawyer @NYCDefenseLaw to start mid-morning.
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[YESorNO]

El Chapo trial: Head of train operations testifies on drug smuggling route

Dec 11, 2018

"A former cartel member, Tirso Martinez, testified that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman shipped cocaine along a train route from Mexico to New Jersey hidden under cooking oil. Attorney Paul Batista joined CBSN with the latest on the case."

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[YESorNO]

El Chapo Trial: Candid Video Interview Entered Into Evidence
In a video interview from October 2015, El Chapo described his thoughts about the drug trade

DECEMBER 12, 2018

"The first time Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán escaped from a Mexican prison, he disappeared into the mountains of his home state of Sinaloa, intent on keeping a low profile while rebuilding the Sinaloa Cartel, the drug-trafficking organization he’s accused of leading. But following his second escape, he was less cautious, agreeing to meet with Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and the actor Sean Penn, who published a story about the encounter in Rolling Stone....

In the 17-minute clip, Guzmán portrayed himself as a simple farmer and businessman, expounding on his life story and his thoughts on the drug trade, as well as his hope that death would not come in a hail of bullets like so many of his predecessors. He skipped several questions that had been provided, and offered no way to ask follow-ups when his answers weren’t sufficient.

The camera work was shaky, and the format — providing questions to be answered at his discretion — often allowed El Chapo to get away with trite, one-sentence answers. But the interview is now being entered as evidence for the prosecution.

It was not immediately clear Wednesday what the prosecution intends to do with the video. Several clips were entered into evidence during the testimony of a young FBI analyst, whose commentary was limited to her own role in the investigation, which consisted of downloading the clips from YouTube and burning them onto CDs for evidence. ...

The meeting with Penn and Castillo and the decision to film an interview are not likely to help Guzmán’s case, and they certainly did not help him stay free following his escape...."

El Chapo Trial: Candid Video Interview Entered Into Evidence – Rolling Stone
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El Chapo trial: Jury hears directly from Joaquin Guzman through infamous Sean Penn interview

Dec 12, 2018

"Jurors in the El Chapo trial heard directly from the defendant. In a video originally co-produced by actor Sean Penn, El Chapo is seen explaining who he thinks is responsible for the drug cartel. Attorney Paul Batista joined CBSN with analysis."

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[YESorNO]

Flores Twins Chicago El Chapo Trial Part 1

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Flores Twins Chicago part 2 - El Chapo trial

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[YESorNO]

Government witness at 'El Chapo' trial tells of his criminal past
During his second day of testimony at the trial of accused cocaine kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, Jorge Milton Cifuentes-Villa testifies that he was a successful drug smuggler but a failed hands-on assassin.

December 12, 2018

"He might have made his mark as a drug smuggler but as a hands-on assassin Jorge Milton Cifuentes-Villa admitted he didn’t have much luck.

Testifying as a government witness Wednesday in the trial of accused cocaine kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, Cifuentes-Villa described how, in his long varied life as a criminal, he once was tasked at age 18 with the job of killing a fellow inmate in a Colombia prison in 1984. Cifuentes-Villa said he was given a number of ways of killing the man, including the use of poison, a knife, a grenade or a gun. Nothing went well....

Cifuentes-Villa is expected to take the stand again on Thursday in a trial that is expected to go on for months."

Witness at 'El Chapo' trial tells of his criminal past
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El Chapo’s trial reveals organized crime links to Mexican soccer

Dec 12, 2018

"According to testimony from Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s trial, there’s been at last two recorded links between the Sinaloa Cartel and professional soccer teams in Mexico.

Tirso Martinez, a trafficker that worked for El Chapo for more than a decade, revealed on Monday how he used drug money to buy soccer teams in Mexico. Among the teams purchased were sides Club de Fútbol La Piedad and Venados de Yucatan. Martinez was eventually bought out by the Mexican Federation in 2006 when his identity was discovered, as reported by VICE News reporter Keegan Hamilton...."

El Chapo’s trial reveals organized crime links to Mexican soccer
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[Niner]

Thursday, Dec. 13th:
*Trial continues (Day 17) (@ 9am ET) - NY – *Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera (El Chapo) (~61) arrested & charged with smuggled 155 tons of cocaine into U.S. Sinaloa drug cartel chief. Guzmán faces 17-count indictment charging him with drug trafficking, murder conspiracy & money laundering spanning nearly three decades. Plead not guilty to all charges. No bail.
Prosecutors say Guzmán ran Mexico's Sinaloa cartel from 1989 to 2014. In that time, they allege the cartel brought cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine & marijuana into the U.S. Prosecutors also charged Guzmán in connection with the assassinations of thousands of competitors. Plead not guilty to all charges. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Trial expected to last several months. Also for trafficking, conspiracy & firearms in California, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Florida & New York.
Skipping over Day 1 thru 13.
12/10/18 Day 14: Prosecutors say his wife Emma Coronel used a cellphone to communicate w/him during the trial, violating court-ordered security measures. Motion for sanctions against a member of the defense over the phone. Another sealed motion by the government to limit testimony. State witness: Tirso Martinez-Sachez "El Futbolista" a trafficker who worked for the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels in the '90s and early 2000s.
12/11/18 Day 15: State witnesses: Tirso Martinez-Sachez "El Futbolista”. FBI analyst (no name) introduced 2015 Rolling Stone interview with Sean Penn, parts of which were played in court late Tuesday. Colombian trafficker, Jorge Milton Cifuentes-Villa. Trial continues on 12/12.
12/12/18 Day 16: State witnesses: Jorge Milton Cifuentes-Villa. Trial continues on 12/13.

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15h15 hours ago
Pretty great sidebar exchange about Jorge's efforts to fight climate change. El Chapo's lawyer calls him "the green champion." Then we find out he was just laundering money. Oh.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15h15 hours ago
A quiet legal drama continues to unfold w/ defense member Mariel Colon over the alleged phone comms w/ Chapo & his wife Emma.
She was called to sidebar at end of day by Judge Cogan. That convo is sealed, but she had to stop translating for him earlier due to pending motions.

Keegan Hamilton Retweeted
Stephen Woodman‏Verified account @Stephentwoodman 16h16 hours ago
On average, a police officer is killed every day in Mexico, according to @causaencomun. The most dangerous states for police are Guanajuato, Guerrero, Edomex, Veracruz and Puebla http://www.milenio.com/policia/en-2018-un-policia-asesinado-cada-dia-causa-en-comun …


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15h15 hours ago
Keegan Hamilton Retweeted Víctor Sancho

EL Chapo's go-to jam, according to his wife Emma…

---Víctor Sancho‏ @vsancho
Revisitando la entrevista de @TelemundoNews a Emma Coronel me reafirmo en que lo más destacado fue sobre los gustos musicales de #ElChapo.
Todos creíamos que su favorita era “Un puño de tierra”; ahora sabemos que prefiere “Cruzando cerros y arroyos”

3:37 PM - 12 Dec 2018

(translated from Google translate:
Revisiting the interview of @TelemundoNews to Emma Coronel I reaffirm that the highlight was about the musical tastes of #ElChapo.

We all thought that his favorite was "A fist of earth"; Now we know you prefer "Crossing hills and streams")

Los Alegres Del Barranco - Cruzando Cerros Y Arroyos
(Los Alegres Del Barranco - Crossing Hills and Streams)

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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15h15 hours ago
Here's @NoahHurowitz in @RollingStone on the mag's Sean Penn interview being used as evidence against El Chapo.
The tape and the meeting are "not likely to help Guzmán’s case, and they certainly did not help him stay free following his escape."

El Chapo Trial: Candid Video Interview Entered Into Evidence – Rolling Stone

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15h15 hours ago
Keegan Hamilton Retweeted Alan Feuer

I feel like I tweet all the good *advertiser censored* from El Chapo's trial, then @alanfeuer reminds me of everything I overlooked amid the abundance of crazy, like the exploding meth lab.

----Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer
Today's session of the Chapo trial had a little of everything: Pemex executives hatching drug deals w/the cartel, a scam involving indigenous people in the Amazon, a meth lab exploding, Chapo smoking pot, a trafficker talking w/his mom & a cyanide-laced arepa.
2:10 PM - 12 Dec 2018
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Hello from Day 17 of El Chapo's trial in Brooklyn.
Expecting more testimony from Colombian cocaine supplier Jorge Cifuentes, followed by cross-examination and law enforcement witnesses.
Read my latest: https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/kzvkqz/the-cartel-leaders-suspected-of-killing-a-legendary-mexican-journalist-could-testify-against-el-chapo …
And listen to our podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/41nsmKDd4ImGjyX0QIl8Up …

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Here's another fun Jorge Cifuentes story from yesterday. It about how the cartel built an encrypted comms network for El Chapo in the mountains of Sinaloa.

Jorge said he had a systems engineer named Cristián who worked for him. He was flown in from Colombia for the job.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Jorge said the network Cristián built for Chapo "had wireless internet up in the mountains with encryption."

He said the system offered "secure communications by voice, text, data without having authorities see what we were doing."

But there were bugs.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Being the IT for the cartel was a gig.

Cristián kept calling Jorge to complain about Jorge's little brother Alex blaming him for the network being down. Alex was in charge of smuggling drug money to Colombia. This is him w/ Chapo and and an unidentified woman.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Jorge was obsessed w/ digital security. He also kept ledgers detailing his expenses. They include items like "cellular inhibitors" and "microphone searchers." Jorge on the devices: "You turn it on during a meeting and there's no way anyone can tape it or send out anything."

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Anyway, when Cristián calls to complain, Jorge is not sympathetic: "I said it was his fault because he's in charge of the system always working."

The irony is prosecutors only had this convo on tape because they had to use regular phones while their encrypted network was down.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Stay tuned for more adventures with Jorge this morning!
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 25m25 minutes ago
#BREAKING @vicenews: We just heard the most damning evidence yet against El Chapo. Prosecutors played the jury a taped phone call that featured Chapo negotiating the details of a 6 ton cocaine deal with a member of Colombia's FARC guerrilla group.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 31m31 minutes ago
Jurors at the Chapo trial heard a secretly recorded phone call of the kingpin today, and it was pretty damning stuff.
On the call Chapo can be heard cutting a 6-ton coke deal w/a member of the FARC Colombian guerrillas.
He wants to pay cash for 2 tons & take 4 on credit.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 29m29 minutes ago
You can hear Chapo haggling over price & demanding that a "technician" inspect the coke before he sends an advance of $50,000. The FARC guy agrees to move the coke from the Colombian border to Guayaquil, Ecuador for $100 a kilo.
It's not yet clear who taped the call or how.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 29m29 minutes ago
The 6-ton deal was arranged with Jorge Cifuentes and his brother Alex. The only reason prosecutors were able to obtain the call between Chapo and the FARC was due to problems with their encrypted network. Jorge's engineer forgot to renew the license for their security software.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 27m27 minutes ago
Jorge called the engineer "an irresponsible person." He testified that forgetting to renew the software license meant "the system is down now, so none of us can have secure communication anywhere."
Prosecutor: "Does that include Don Joaquin Guzman"
Jorge: "Of course."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 25m25 minutes ago
Prosecutors played another taped phone call where El Chapo complained to his nephew Tomás about the encrypted comms not working. He was trying to get Jorge's brother Alex to fix the problem. Jorge said in the system each cartel member had their own personal extension number.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 24m24 minutes ago
The cocaine shipment discussed on the taped phone call w/ El Chapo involved 6 tons of cocaine moving from Colombia to Guayaquil, Ecuador, then to Mexico. Jorge had agreed to put up some of his properties as collateral for 4 tons worth, Chapo would pay cash for the rest.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 23m23 minutes ago
The taped call showed how Chapo would wheel and deal. He convinced the FARC leader to let him pay cash for just 2 tons of cocaine. Initially it was supposed to be 2.5 tons. "He's a really good businessman," Jorge said.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 21m21 minutes ago
Chapo told the FARC leader that he was partners with "the guy from the M," an apparent reference to Mayo. Chapo also offered to send his nephew to stay w/ the FARC as a guarantee for the deal until the guerrillas received payment. He was using his relative as human collateral.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 19m19 minutes ago
Chapo also made arrangements to send a "technician" to check the quality of the cocaine. He'd been displeased w/ the quality of the product he'd received in past Ecuador deals. The guerrillas wanted a 50% down payment from Chapo for 2 tons of cocaine before they would go forward.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 18m18 minutes ago
We got to hear Chapo and his nephew discussing the logistics of moving the cocaine from Colombia to a warehouse in Guayaquil. They had to pay shipping costs of $100 per kilo. Jorge testified that they had bribed the Ecuadorian army to provide this service.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 16m16 minutes ago
Jorge had a big stake in this deal. He was putting up his property in collateral for 4 tons of cocaine. His brother Alex was also w/ Chapo in Sinaloa, and after losing 14 tons in two past shipments, Jorge was nervous that if something went wrong w/ this one Chapo would kill Alex.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 16m16 minutes ago
Ultimately, the guerrillas didn't ask for the titles of Jorge's properties as collateral and the deal was called off. Jorge wasn't sure if Chapo received the 2 tons of cocaine that he had agreed to pay for in cash.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15m15 minutes ago
Cross-examination of Jorge by El Chapo's lawyer @NYCDefenseLaw will begin after the mid-morning break. Stay tuned for updates.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 35m35 minutes ago
First question from El Chapo's lawyer to Jorge Cifuentes on cross:

Jeff Lichtman: "You've been committing crimes since you were a child, isn't that right sir?"

Jorge: "Si señor."

Lichtman: "And you've been lying since you were a child?"

Jorge: "Si señor."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 35m35 minutes ago
On cross-examination at the Chapo trial, the Colombian narco, Jorge Cifuentes, admitted to a life of crime starting at age 4 when he helped his father unload contraband whiskey from the Medellin seaport. For nearly the next 50 yrs, he lied, cheated, bribed and sold tons of coke.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 33m33 minutes ago
We got some more Jorge family history. He grew up poor. His dad was a truck driver who smuggled contraband liquor and cigarettes. They also processed coca leaves into cocaine base at the family farm. Jorge's younger brother Alex helped dry the coca leaves in the oven.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 35m35 minutes ago
Though the cross was limited by the judge, Jorge acknowledged bribing the Ecuadorian army & navy, a Mexican prosecutor & Colombian tax officials. His older brother, Pacho (who worked as a pilot for Pablo Escobar), routinely bribed Colombian police and military officers, he said.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 33m33 minutes ago
Just as Chapo's lawyer, Jeff Lichtman, was winding up about Pacho's bribes, the government objected. After a sidebar conference w/the judge, no officers were named--although Jorge admitted that generals and colonels in the Colombian military took "boxes of cash."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 31m31 minutes ago
Jorge acknowledged his mendacity started as far back as teenage years when he lied about his age on his first driver's licence. He had a portfolio of fake ID's, including the one he used when he was once stopped in Paris on his way to Montreal to consummate a 15-ton hashish deal.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 31m31 minutes ago
Lichtman pressed Jorge about whether he was entirely forthright with U.S. authorities about his family's criminal enterprises. Here's a breakdown of the Cifuentes network as it relates to Chapo.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 29m29 minutes ago
Jorge said he grew up with "typical family problems." Just the usual. "Gossip there, gossip here," he said.

Then Lichtman noted that Jorge's brother ordered the murder of his nephew for trying to kidnap their mother.

"Typical family problems," Lichtman said sarcastically.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 29m29 minutes ago
Nearly the entire Cifuentes clan--both parents and most of the 9 kids--were in the drug trade, and Jorge suggested that they had "conflicts like any other family." "Like the time your brother, Alex, ordered the murder of your nephew, Jaime?" Lichtman asked.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 27m27 minutes ago
Why had Alex Cifuentes tried to kill his nephew? Jorge admitted it was because Jaime had once ordered the kidnapping of his own grandmother. "Typical family issues?" Lichtman asked.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 27m27 minutes ago
Jorge was very slippery and seemed to anticipate the traps that Lichtman was attempting to set with his line of questioning.

Jorge was patient and funny. Asked whether he ever used "straw purchasers" to buy properties, he raised his hand and smirked as he said, "Guilty."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 26m26 minutes ago
Cross-examination will continue after the lunch break. Stay tuned for updates.

So far, it seems the defense has failed to land any serious blows that could undermine Jorge's credibility as a witness in the eyes of the jury.
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[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 59s60 seconds ago
(Not so) fun fact of the day from the Chapo trial:

In 1997, assassins opened fire on the Colombian trafficker, Humberto Ojeda, at a gas station where he was parked in his armored car w/his daughter. 40 shots were fired, but only one went thru the lock--& hit Ojeda in the heart.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3h3 hours ago
Mortally wounded, Ojeda nonetheless managed to drive the 100 feet or to his home. His wife ran outside and rescued the daughter, but not before her father died beside her. Yikes.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Want to hear El Chapo negotiate a 6-ton cocaine deal with FARC guerrillas in Colombia?

Here's the wiretapped phone call that was played today for the jury.

Transcript: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5626507-Transcript-of-El-Chapo-FARC-cocaine-deal-wiretap.html …

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/keegan-hamilton-596372337/wiretap-call-of-el-chapos-drug-deal-with-the-farc … @vicenews


Keegan Hamilton Retweeted
Molly Crane-Newman‏Verified account @molcranenewman 1h1 hour ago
Twice today I caught #ElChapo blowing kisses to his wife in the second row. Before we went on lunch break, he caught some kisses with his hand she blew back. Romance is alive and well in the Eastern District.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Cross-examination of Jorge Cifuentes scheduled to continue when El Chapo’s trial resumes Monday. Some colorful exchanges today between Jorge and @NYCDefenseLaw, look forward to seeing where this goes.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1m1 minute ago
We also got a ruling from Judge Cogan today on tweets by @balarezolaw. Judge said his tweets “came close to creating a substantial likelihood of interfering with a fair trial.” But he stopped short of formally admonishing him.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 54s54 seconds ago
Cogan seemed amused by @balarezolaw, noted the tweets displayed his “indefatigable sense of humor,” but judge also warned him to “keep it in check and be a little more careful.”


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 6m6 minutes ago
Humor continued when @balarezolaw spoke: “I’m sure the government has noticed I’ve limited my tweeting to Donald Trump and Barcelona soccer.”
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Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5m5 minutes ago
On cross, Cifuentes emerged as a wildly successful drug dealer who came from nothing. He said that as a child, he and 6 of his other siblings slept in the same bed. But by 1991, his drug organization was earning staggering gross revenues of $100 million *a month.*

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3m3 minutes ago
But he was also a talented liar & cheater. He confessed to having bought a fake diploma once to "impress my colleagues at work"--by which he meant his drug dealing colleagues. He lied about his name while buying a $4 million mansion in Fla. & when he eventually fled to Australia.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
When he was sent to prison in Colombia at age 18, he admitted he slept w/the wife of a prison guard &, as he mentioned yesterday, took a murder contract from a cartel & tried to assassinate a fellow inmate w/ a cyanide-laced arepa.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
Arepa update: Yesterday Cifuentes said the guy he tried to kill ate the wrong arepa. Today he said he tossed the poisoned one b/c "I don't like hurting people." One of Chapo's lawyers said sarcastically "You don't like hurting people?" "Not ones who are not in my line of attack"
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[YESorNO]

EL CHAPO TRIAL UPDATES: COCAINE CALL WITH COLOMBIA'S FARC, STACKS OF HEROIN UNBOXED IN OPEN COURT, OTHER TRIAL THEATRICS

12/13/18

"BROOKLYN, NY - The drama unfolding on the eighth floor of Brooklyn’s federal court on Thursday could easily be mistaken for an epic telenovela episode.

There was the reputed drug cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loer clad in a smart charcoal suit facing down a former Colombian drug smuggling cohort testifying against him through multiple interpreters to extend the Q&A, his 29-year-old former beauty queen wife and mother of his twin 7-year-old daughters returning waves and gazing grins from the second row of benches which has a paper sign that reads: “DEFENSE.” And three trollies wheeled in full of evidence files as well as a display of multimedia, including: surveillance videos, telephone recordings -- and even a cameo involving the unpacking of two DEA-marked boxes worth of Heroin bricks...."

El Chapo's trial: A potential coke deal with Colombia's FARC, stacks of heroin bricks unboxed, among theatrics
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Witness says recording is of 'El Chapo' agreeing to a major drug deal with Colombian rebel

December 13, 2018

"After weeks of accusation and innuendo, prosecutors in the trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on Thursday unveiled their most damning evidence yet — a cocaine negotiation allegedly between the defendant and a Colombian guerrilla that authorities were able to intercept because of a simple administrative mistake....

...the call now stands out as a blow to Guzman’s defense. Previously, Guzman’s lawyers have painted his accusers as polished liars who will say anything to see their sentences reduced or their families relocated to the United States. But the tape indicates that at least some of what other witnesses have told the jury is true. The tape places Guzman at the center of a multimillion-dollar cocaine deal, and illustrates the intimate link between his organization and Colombia’s brutal drug wars....

But neither a brutal murder nor a cold-blooded business deal could compete with the thrill of the news still to come. Moments after proceedings stopped for the day, Judge Brian Cogan gave jurors an early Christmas present.

“I can’t make any promises,” he warned, before revealing that the trial was moving much faster than expected. Jurors who’d been told they might be held as late as March could now tentatively plan on being free by the end of January."

Witness says recording is of 'El Chapo' agreeing to a major drug deal with Colombian rebel
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Jurors hear El Chapo negotiate six-ton cocaine deal in secretly recorded phone call

DEC 13, 2018

Jurors hear El Chapo negotiate six-ton cocaine deal in secretly recorded phone call - NY Daily News
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Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
As if I don’t already give El Chapo enough of my time, now I’m trapped behind police lines as they take him back to jail for the weekend.

(video clip: Alan Feuer on Twitter )


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 54m54 minutes ago
While we wait, here’s tonight’s story.

El Chapo Speaks: Jury Hears Secretly Recorded Phone Call Detailing Drug Deal


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 50m50 minutes ago
Come for the El Chapo wiretap. Stay for the remarkable like of crime of the man who got Chapo taped: Jorge Cifuentes.

El Chapo Speaks: Jury Hears Secretly Recorded Phone Call Detailing Drug Deal
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[YESorNO]

Ray Donovan is New York’s new state drug czar

December 13, 2018

"Ray Donovan really has come to New York — but the only thing he’s fixing is the drug epidemic.

The Justice Department on Thursday announced the name of New York’s new state drug czar — and it’s a name he shares with the fictional Showtime series tough guy played by Liev Schreiber, whose character is in the Big Apple for Season 6.

“Born and raised in New York City, Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan returns home to lead the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division in its mission to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations worldwide,” the DOJ said in a statement.

One of Donovan’s most recent claims to fame was overseeing the operation that resulted in the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who’s currently on trial in federal court in Manhattan...."

https://nypost.com/2018/12/13/ray-donovan-is-new-yorks-new-state-drug-czar/
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