- Lucy Anna Gray 19 November 2018 14:18
In related news to the Guzman trial, drug boss Hector Manuel Beltran Leyva, once one of Mexico's most-wanted men, died Sunday after suffering a heart attack in jail.
Beltran Leyva, 56m, was arrested in 2014 in San Miguel de Allende, but had eluded an extradition request from the US.
The family-run Beltran Leyva cartel was once a leading player in Mexican drug trafficking, with control of the US border region in Sonora. In 2008, a federation dominated by the Sinaloa Cartel, which included the Beltran Leyva organisation, broke apart, sparking one of the bloodiest episodes of Mexican cartel infighting.
Brothers Alfredo and Carlos were arrested, while Arturo was killed by security forces. Hector's wife Clara Laborin Archuleta was arrested in 2016 after taking over cartel operations and trying to reassert control in the Pacific Coast resort of Acapulco. Splinter groups have subjected Acapulco to unrelenting waves of violence and extortions.
Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is suspected of having provided intelligence that led to the arrest of Alfredo.
19 November 2018 14:31
Jesus 'El Rey' Zambada is expected to return to the witness stand today. His older brother told the jury that his older brother, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, and Guzman used armies of assassins to kill their enemies.
'El Rey' is the younger brother of what prosecutors say is Guzman's longtime partner in the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada. In his lengthy testimony, 'El Rey' told the court his brother worked with 'El Chapo' and others to form the Sinaloa cartel, smuggling tons of drugs from Mexico to the US.
19 November 2018 15:08
'El Rey', 57, who has been in police custody since 2008, is the first of several cooperators testifying against Guzman in hopes of leniency at sentencing. The defence claim the deals have given them an incentive to exaggerate the role of Guzman, who pleaded not guilty after being extradited to the US last year.
19 November 2018 15:08
Much of Zambada's testimony focused on bribery, one of his main duties as top lieutenant to the cartel-s top bosses - his older brother, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, and Guzman. Based in Mexico City, where he kept watch over tons of cocaine stashed in a warehouse, Jesus Zambada claimed he bought off federal and local police, prosecutors, airport officials and authorities in the city at a cost of about $300,000 a month in exchange for information and protections that kept the sprawling drug operation running smoothly.
He testified Guzman once dispatched him to the state of Guerrero in 20014 to give a military general there $100,000 in cash.
The general "is a friend of mine," he recalled Guzman telling him. "Give him a hug and notify him that I'll be working around the state."
19 November 2018 15:08
Zambada hadn't yet met Guzman when the kingpin escaped from prison by hiding in a laundry bin in 2001 and on the run in the Mexican countryside. He testified his older brother, worried that a special military force was closing in on Guzman, arranged to have a helicopter extract him from the area and instructed his sibling to find a "semi-deserted location" in central Mexico where it could land.
When the helicopter touched down, the Zambadas were there to greet him. The older one and Guzman embraced before the younger one, along with his wife, whisked him away in the backseat of his car, he testified.
As they approached a toll booth on the nearly three-hour drive to Mexico City, Zambada urged Guzman "to put a newspaper in front of his face because he was very wanted then."
Later, at the sight of the Mexico City police approaching the car, Guzman looked troubled, he said. That was before he informed him he had arranged for the escort.
"Don't worry about it," he said to Guzman. "These are our people. No one is going to touch us from here on out."
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