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

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Here's footage from the house in Cabo San Lucas where Chapo narrowly avoided capture on Feb. 22, 2012. Clip briefly shows footsteps in the area behind behind the pool, which was apparently his escape route.

(video clip: Keegan Hamilton on Twitter )


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 59m59 minutes ago
More footage from inside Chapo's house in Cabo San Lucas. This goes inside what is believed to be his bedroom. He fled in a hurry and left a lot of stuff behind, including one of his signature black baseball caps.

(video clip: Keegan Hamilton on Twitter )


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 55m55 minutes ago
We spoke with a DEA agent who was involved with the raid on Chapo's house in Cabo San Lucas. Listen to hear how they eventually tracked him down:

EP 6: The Hunt
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 53m53 minutes ago
More sealed filings today on El Chapo's court docket. As noted, one of these deals with the "defendant's theory of the case and identifies potential defense witnesses." The other contains "sensitive personal and medical information" about Chapo.

 

[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 5h5 hours ago
Jaguar, who was already a part of the Línea cartel was the perfect inside man to “eliminate the Línea people little by little.” To be continued back in court ...


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 50m50 minutes ago
Eventually J.L. wanted a peace deal with Jaguar and the two met with the agreement not to kill the other. But Jaguar wanted no part of a lasting deal, and when they met in person, along with the other leaders of the Zetas, Jaguar told J.L. to his face that he planned to kill him.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 50m50 minutes ago
Once, Jaguar took Edgar Ivan Galvan to a death house, which included a garage, sound-proof interior and drainage outlet. “He told me this is where he’d kill people,” he said.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 50m50 minutes ago
As for himself, Edgar Ivan Galvan said he wasn’t comfortable making kill orders. But when Jaguar asked him to order the killing of a man named Freddy, he didn’t think he could refuse. So he hedged.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 50m50 minutes ago
“I said to Luni, ‘Look, Luni, this is the job,” he recalled. “I said here is the picture, here is the gun, here is the silencer.” He asked him if he were up for the job, and Luni said he was.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 49m49 minutes ago
Well into his dealings with Jaguar, Edgar Ivan Galvan noticed a pattern develop: he and his workers were never getting paid – “not even a dollar.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 49m49 minutes ago
Edgar Ivan Galvan said that he didn’t even think of asking Chapo’s associate, Jaguar, for the money directly. “I was afraid to ask him for money because I was afraid of him,” he explained.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 50m50 minutes ago
So, when an associate was arrested and he rescued a remaining 50 kilos stashed at his home, Edgar Ivan Galvan saved 2 kilos to pay off himself and his workers, and Jaguar was none the wiser.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 50m50 minutes ago
This is how an English-language trial is conducted when most of the important players speak Spanish: The attorney asks a question in English, which is translated to Spanish. The witness answers in Spanish, which is translated (sometimes faultily) to English.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 49m49 minutes ago
Despite all the back and forth, only the English translation goes into the record.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 49m49 minutes ago
El Chapo has his own set of translators for English translators and to answer his own questions. But when a witness testifies in Spanish the second translation is redundant … unless Chapo can’t hear him. Today, the defense complained of just that.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 45m45 minutes ago
The judge repeatedly dismisses complaints by El Chapo's defense about translation errors and the audibility of Spanish-speaking witnesses. “As I’ve mentioned previously what the interpreter says governs." He added: “It’s the interpreter’s statements that comprise the testimony.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 43m43 minutes ago
Throughout the trial, El Chapo’s defense has noted errors in translation, and the judge has noted little concern. He said today that it didn’t matter if the defense could hear the Spanish-speaking witness’s actual words -- since only the English translation went in the record.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 43m43 minutes ago
Despite the judge’s hard stance on translation issues in El Chapo’s trial (he’s not interested and doesn’t think anybody else should be either), he did ask a Spanish-speaking witness to speak up today, despite noting it didn’t really matter if he could be heard or not.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 40m40 minutes ago
Edgar Ivan Galvan said that they would cross 12 kilos of cocaine at a time, build up a shipment of 50-80 kilos at a stash house and then load up a truck for drives out to Atlanta or Chicago


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 40m40 minutes ago
Edgar Ivan Galvan said that they would cross 12 kilos of cocaine at a time, build up a shipment of 50-80 kilos at a stash house and then load up a truck for drives out to Atlanta or Chicago.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 36m36 minutes ago
Then @balarezolaw brought up the black cap pictured in the home. He showed two pictures side by side of El Chapo and El Mayo. “What collar is that baseball cap?” he asked of El Chapo’s. (It was blue.) The one on El Mayo? “Black.” (Here’s Mayo in his black cap.)

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 25m25 minutes ago
Videos like this one take you outside a Chapo property.

(video clip: https://twitter.com/i/status/1082420060810080256 )


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 15m15 minutes ago
Take a look at the outside of a Chapo property. And inside we “walked through” the bedroom and bathroom (replete with women’s makeup and grooming products), as well as the closet sporting size-9 @Nike sneakers, a medium-sized @BananaRepublic shirt and a vast collection of jeans.

(video clip: Emily Palmer on Twitter )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 39m39 minutes ago
Galvan testified that he was at first leery of working for Jaguar, a notoriously violent guy. He recalled how Jaguar once took him to a house in Juarez in which one of the rooms had a white-tiled floor sloping toward a drain. "That's where he killed people," Galvan said.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 37m37 minutes ago
But going against his instincts Galvan went to work for Jaguar, first smuggling coke and pot from Juarez to El Paso then moving guns--including big ones like a 50-cal rifle--from El Paso to Juarez.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 35m35 minutes ago
By this trial's standards his drug loads were paltry. He said he moved about a ton of weed & 250 kilos of coke from 2008 to 2011. By comparison, Vicente Zambada, son of Mayo Zambada & the cartel's heir apparent, testified last week about hatching a plan to ship 100 TONS of coke.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 33m33 minutes ago
But Galvan--quiet, unassuming & not especially bright--had bad luck. He moved 4 or 5 gun shipments for Jaguar to help the cartel's war against La Linea before the El Paso cops stumbled onto his stash house after following a suspicious Volkswagon Jetta.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 33m33 minutes ago
When he called Jaguar to report the raid, Jaguar was "really pissed," he said. And Jaguar wasn't the kind of guy you disappointed or messed around with. He never w/Jaguar after that day.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 32m32 minutes ago
And even though he tried his hand a few more cross-border drug deals, none of them panned out. Within a year of the El Paso raid, he got busted while driving his car.
The little guy is now serving a 24-year sentence.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 29m29 minutes ago
Oh.
Some of the guns seized in El Paso originated from the ATF's controversial Fast & Furious program designed to let illegal gun buyers go in hopes the weapons could be traced to cartel figures.
Chapo's lawyers wanted to bring up Fast & Furious. The judge would not allow it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Trial of El Chapo won't resolve the corruption that empowered him, says journalist

"The trial of suspected Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is laying bare a bloody tale of drug smuggling and cartel warfare, but it won't do much to combat the larger problem, according to a Mexican investigative journalist.

"The trial of El Chapo Guzman is very symbolic," said Anabel Hernández, author of Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and their Godfathers.

"But the problem is that this will not resolve all the corruption, all the laundering of money that exists in Mexico, and that helps the Sinaloa Cartel, and also other cartels, to exist," she told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

The "bad news" is that all the "corrupted people" that helped El Chapo on his rise to power are still free, and still in positions of power in Mexico, she added...."

Trial of El Chapo won't resolve the corruption that empowered him, says journalist | CBC Radio
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'If it doesn't fit': O.J. Simpson referenced at El Chapo trial over drug lord's sneakers found at raid

JAN 07, 2019

"El Chapo’s defense pulled a page from O.J. Simpson’s legal playbook Monday.

While cross-examining a former FBI agent, defense lawyer Eduardo Balarezo challenged testimony that the grenades, financial records and size-9 Nike sneakers found during a 2012 raid on a villa in Cabo San Lucas actually belonged to the Mexican drug lord.

Balarezo suggested there was no way to determine ownership of the sneakers because they weren’t introduced as evidence at the Brooklyn trial.

“The jury has no way of knowing. If they don’t fit, what?” the lawyer asked.

“What is this? The O.J. trial?” the witness, Jose Moreno, shot back....

Balarezo’s footwear focus Monday was enough to prompt one heckler in the courtroom gallery to blurt out, “You must acquit.”...
The last witness to testify Monday was cartel underling Edgar Ivan Galvan, 41, a cooperating witness now serving the eighth year of a 24-year sentence for a drugs and weapons conviction.

Galvan said he was recruited to work for the Sinaloa Cartel as part of an effort to eliminate rival drug dealers in his native city of Juarez. He said this meant a great deal to El Chapo.

“It was something personal,” Galavan testified. “He said that...he was going to take Juarez.”

Galvan admitted supplying arms to the Sinaloa Cartel and its hitmen. He said the arms were stored in safe houses in El Paso, Tex.

He told jurors he once visited an execution house that was soundproofed so nobody could hear the screams."

'If it doesn't fit': O.J. Simpson referenced at El Chapo trial over drug lord's sneakers found at raid - NY Daily News
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Most of the witnesses at the El Chapo trial so far have been cartel bigwigs, but Edgar Galvan was a drug world minion: a guy who knew a guy who knew the guy in charge.

El Chapo Trial: How a Divorce Pushed One Man to a Career in the Sinaloa Drug Cartel

JAN 07, 2019

El Chapo Trial: How a Divorce Pushed One Man to a Career in the Sinaloa Drug Cartel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Niner]

Tuesday, January 8th:
*Trial continues (Day 25) (@ 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 21.
1/3/19 Day 22: State witness: Vicente Zambada Niebla, the son of Chapo's partner, Mayo Zambada; Vicente was a top man in the Sinaloa cartel & something like its heir apparent. Trial continues 1/4.
1/4/19 Day 23: State witness: Vicente Zambada Niebla. Trial continues on Monday, 1/7.
1/7/19 Day 24: Before Vicente Zambada was called to testify, prosecutors got the judge to block questions from the defense about Vicente's past claims about having a secret deal w/ the DEA. But that still came up during cross-examination on Friday. Here's how, from a sidebar convo w/ the judge. State witnesses: Vicente Zambada Niebla. Jose Moreno, a former FBI agent in Tijuana, Mexico. Edgar Iván Galván (was a Sinaloa cartel operative in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez). Trial continues to 1/8.

 

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 7h7 hours ago
Prosecutors in the Chapo trial filed a proposal of their judge's instructions to the jury last night. That suggest they're close to finishing their case. Their draft charge is unusually long--70 pages. And that suggests the jury will have a daunting task when it gets the case.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 7h7 hours ago
Chapo has been indicted on 11 separate counts and the jury will have to render a verdict on each of them: a continuing criminal enterprise charge, seven drug charges, a weapons charge and a money laundering conspiracy charge.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 7h7 hours ago
The enterprise charge is the main item. It has 29 separate violations, mostly drug shipments (moving, say, 10k kilos of coke in July 2004.) There's also a murder conspiracy in there. To find Chapo guilty of this, the jury has to conclude that he committed at least three of them.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 6h6 hours ago
The jury also has to find that Chapo worked in concert with at least five other people in committing those violations and that he was an organizer or supervisor of the group--not necessarily the main boss, but simply a guy who was in charge.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 6h6 hours ago
The govt also took on Chapo's main defense--that Mayo Zambada, his partner, was the real mastermind of the cartel--by placing a section in the charge reminding the jurors that they can't draw any inference from the fact that other people have been mentioned but aren't on trial.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5h5 hours ago
Alan Feuer Retweeted Alan Feuer

There were indications late last night that the federal government is approaching the end of its gargantuan prosecution of El Chapo, leaving the defense to mount whatever case it can. See below.

---Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer
Prosecutors in the Chapo trial filed a proposal of their judge's instructions to the jury last night. That suggest they're close to finishing their case. Their draft charge is unusually long--70 pages. And that suggests the jury will have a daunting task when it gets the case.
1:49 AM - 8 Jan 2019


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5h5 hours ago
As for what sort of defense Chapo might offer, it seems the possibility that he will take the stand and testify on his own behalf is unlikely, but not impossible at this point.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Hello from Day 25 of El Chapo's trial.

Edgar Iván Galván, a low-level Sinaloa cartel operator in El Paso, will be back on the stand this morning. Expecting a witness from the FBI to deliver some potentially juicy testimony later this afternoon.

Stay tuned for updates.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
In a sign that Chapo's trial is entering the homestretch, the government has filed proposed instructions for the judge to give to the jury prior to deliberations.

Notably, amid the focus on El Mayo, there's a section about "other persons not on trial."

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5677375-123115042568.html …

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
"At best, Mr. Galvan was a guy who knew a guy who knew the guy in charge." @alanfeuer on the government's latest cooperating witness against El Chapo:

El Chapo Trial: How a Divorce Pushed One Man to a Career in the Sinaloa Drug Cartel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 17m17 minutes ago
Painfully slow this morning. Chapo's lawyer Bill Purpura questioning Galván about why it took so him long to provide info about Chapo to the government. It didn't come up until after he'd been sentenced to 24 years and exhausted his appeals. Defense suggesting he was desperate.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 14m14 minutes ago
Purpura pointed out that Galván lied repeatedly to law enforcement, including once in 2005 when he managed to get out of a charge for having 550 lbs of weed during a Florida traffic stop.

Purpura: "Are you a good liar?"

Galván: "I used to be."


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13m13 minutes ago
“I was upset because I got 24 years, and I expected way less,” Edgar Ivan Galvan said of his lengthy sentence. The defense noted that his testimony in Chapo’s trial is a last-shot resort “because every other attempt has failed.”


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 12m12 minutes ago
Galván choked back tears when asked on re-direct why he was testifying. Said his daughter was 13 when he was sentenced to 24 years. He said: "At 18, she found out who her dad was. She doesn't speak to me anymore. In the future, I want my daughter to know I did the right thing."


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 14m14 minutes ago
Really and truly no one knows this witness. On day two the defense repeatedly asked about a “Galvan.” Finally the witness, Edgar Ivan Galvan, leaned toward the microphone. “I’m Galvan,” he corrected.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 14m14 minutes ago
Edgar Ivan Galvan was arrested in 2011. His daughter was 13. "She would always say, ‘Dad, when are you coming?’” he recalled. “And I would say, ‘Soon.’ She’s 21 now. When she was 18 she found out who her dad was.” He took a shuddering breath. “She doesn’t speak to me anymore.”


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 22m22 minutes ago
Galván choked back tears when asked on re-direct why he was testifying. Said his daughter was 13 when he was sentenced to 24 years. He said: "At 18, she found out who her dad was. She doesn't speak to me anymore. In the future, I want my daughter to know I did the right thing."



Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13m13 minutes ago
The witness today, Edgar Ivan Galvan, said that he was testifying truthfully in part for his daughter who no longer speaks to him. “I’m doing it to clean my image,” he said. “And to be a better person. That’s why I’m not lying now.”



Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13m13 minutes ago
In other news: Emma Colonel Aispuro returned to court for the first time since the holidays. She blew a kiss to El Chapo as she entered, and he crossed his arms over his chest as though sending her a hug.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 22m22 minutes ago
Most exciting moment was before the trial got underway this morning. The lights briefly went out, it was pitch black inside the courtroom. When the lights came back on, somebody shouted, "He's gone!" Chapo hadn't moved. Everybody laughed, except maybe the US Marshals.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 21m21 minutes ago
Galván still on the stand. Expecting a few more questions on re-cross before the next witness is called.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 16m16 minutes ago
Chapo's lawyer @balarezolaw filed a letter today objecting to the government's motion to seal a letter. His reasoning highlights why the secrecy in this case is so absurd.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5677438-vNFyoZ-Show-Temp.html …

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3m3 minutes ago
In February 2010, an undercover FBI agent met with the target of a sensitive investigation: Christian Rodriguez, an IT specialist who had recently developed a remarkable product: an encrypted communication network for the Mexican drug lord El Chapo and his Colombian partners.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 6m6 minutes ago
The two sat down in a hotel in Manhattan and posing as a gangster, the undercover agent told the cartel's IT guy that he, too, needed to make phone calls without law enforcement being able to listen.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4m4 minutes ago
So began a secret operation that w/in a year allowed the FBI to crack El Chapo's covert communication system and ultimately capture up to 200 phone calls of the kingpin talking to his associates. The FBI agent who led this operation testified about it today at Chapo's trial.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1m1 minute ago
The crucial turn in the probe was flipping Christian who helped the FBI infiltrate the system. It was hi-tech cloak & dagger stuff. Christian had initially put his servers in Canada but in 2011 he moved them to the Netherlands. During the move he gave the FBI the encryption keys.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3m3 minutes ago
Working w/the Dutch the FBI was able to get nearly all of Chapo's calls for months w/in a day of him making them. The agent on the stand, Stephen Marston, was able to ID Chapo's voice by comparing it to other Chapo recordings, including his famous Rolling Stone interview.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3m3 minutes ago
The jury has already heard some of these calls w/o knowing where they came from. Last month, prosecutors played one in which Chapo could be heard negotiating a 6-ton coke deal w/a representative from the FARC Colombian guerrilla group.

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

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


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4m4 minutes ago
More calls were played today including two in which the kingpin was referred to as "Chapo" and "Joaquin." There may be more damaging calls coming, but in terms of sheer quantity this FBI op seems pretty huge, on par w/other famous wiretaps like the John Gotti Ravenite tapes.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4m4 minutes ago
Chapo could access the network via wifi in his hideout in the Sinaloa mountains. Jorge and much of his sprawling drug trafficking family was on the network too. They too had many of their calls intercepted. We'll learn about the secret operation and the calls after lunch.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 11m11 minutes ago
Emily Palmer Retweeted Keegan Hamilton

Earlier in the trial when it started to snow, the judge let everybody out for fear that it would “plunge us all into the dark.” Today, that happened.

---Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton
Most exciting moment was before the trial got underway this morning. The lights briefly went out, it was pitch black inside the courtroom. When the lights came back on, somebody shouted, "He's gone!" Chapo hadn't moved. Everybody laughed, except maybe the US Marshals.

8:24 AM - 8 Jan 2019
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 12m12 minutes ago
Latest witness is FBI special agent Stephen Marston. He's explaining how the FBI cracked El Chapo's encrypted phone network. They had help from a source on the inside: Cristián Rodriguez, the cartel's IT guy. We already heard about him in the trial.

EL CHAPO GOT WIRETAPPED BECAUSE THE CARTEL’S IT GUY SCREWED UP

Dec 15, 2018

"BROOKLYN — It only took five weeks, but jurors in the trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán finally got hear the infamous drug lord speak. Chapo's voice filled the courtroom Thursday as prosecutors played a taped phone call between the alleged Sinaloa cartel leader and members of the FARC guerrilla group. The two sides could be heard negotiating a six-ton cocaine deal.

The exchange was damning. A voice with Chapo’s nasally Sinaloan accent could be heard haggling over the price of cocaine, successfully talking the guerrillas down from $2,100 to $2,000 per kilo, and making arrangements to have the product shipped to a warehouse in Guayaquil, Ecuador, allegedly with the help of corrupt officers in the Ecuadorian army.

It’s still unclear exactly how U.S. authorities obtained the recording, but witness Jorge Cifuentes seemed to have a pretty good idea. He blamed the cartel’s IT guy...."

El Chapo got wiretapped because the cartel’s IT guy screwed up


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 8m8 minutes ago
Marston said in 2010 the FBI launched an undercover investigation of Cristián, who lived in Colombia and worked for drug lord (and cooperating witness) Jorge Cifuentes. Cristián was lured to a meeting at a Manhattan hotel under the guise of helping a crime group encrypt comms.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 5m5 minutes ago
Marston said at first the FBI thought they could crack Chapo's encrypted system but they realized it was "very sophisticated." They eventually approached Cristián and convinced him to cooperate: "We realized without insider access to the system we were not going to get inside."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Jorge Cifuentes testified previously that authorities were able to wiretap Chapo because Cristian forget to renew the software license for the encrypted network. We now know that Cristián flipped and began working for the FBI. He gave them real-time access to Chapo's calls.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
The FBI had Cristián move the servers for Chapo's encrypted network from Canada to the Netherlands. Dutch authorities were in on it and provided data from the servers. The FBI intercepted calls from April 2011 to Jan. 2012. They got around 800 calls, including 100-200 w/ Chapo.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 6m6 minutes ago
The FBI had to verify that it was Chapo on the phone. Fortunately, he provided them with a sample of his voice — the interview with Rolling Stone. Later they also used one of Chapo's phone calls from federal jail in Manhattan.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 5m5 minutes ago
FBI agent describing El Chapo's voice: "In general, it has a higher pitch. It has kind of a sing-songy nature to it, and I pick up a kind of nasally undertone."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4m4 minutes ago
The only calls played so far today in court have been innocuous. One was El Chapo from jail talking about a road being paved somewhere around La Tuna, his hometown. Another was an unidentified woman, perhaps his wife, asking for money. Expecting more after the lunch break.

BBM

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 35m35 minutes ago
We've heard a lot about heroin at El Chapo's trial but no mention of fentanyl. My story @vicenews on how the Sinaloa cartel is flooding the US with synthetic opioids:

HOW THE SINALOA CARTEL IS USING CHINESE CHEMICALS TO FUEL AMERICA’S OPIOID CRISIS

Jan 8, 2019

"BADIRAGUATO, Mexico — The region that produced Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman is known as The Golden Triangle, in reference to the fields of opium poppies hidden deep in the rugged Sierra Madre mountains where three states intersect. Generations of farmers here have sold their harvest to the cartel to be transformed into heroin and shipped north. But the once-lucrative crop suddenly lost its value.

Golden Triangle farmers say the Sinaloa cartel has stopped paying a premium for opium gum, the viscous brown goo that’s extracted from poppy plants and processed into heroin. Addiction rates are still soaring in the U.S., but the cartel has found a way to meet demand for heroin that doesn’t involve fields of poppies.

One 49-year-old man from the small village of Tameapa, who asked not to be identified because he owns a poppy farm, knows exactly why his crop is selling for so little: “It’s because of the synthetic drugs.”..."

How the Sinaloa cartel is using Chinese chemicals to fuel America’s opioid crisis

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHINA RAIDS FENTANYL FACTORY BUT REMAINS SILENT ON WANTED KINGPINS

Dec 28, 2017

China raids fentanyl factory but remains silent on wanted kingpins
---

HOW FENTANYL GETS TO THE U.S. FROM CHINA

Dec 22, 2017

How fentanyl gets to the U.S. from China
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Ok, these calls are devastating. In a series from 4/2011, Chapo is talking w/his bodyguard & gunman Cholo Ivan who has been fighting w/the police. Chapo tells Ivan to tie the cops up instead of brawling w/them to "make sure we don't execute innocent people."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
"Don't be chasing cops," Chapo tells Ivan. "They're the ones who help." A little later, Ivan complains that the cops should respect him and behave. "Listen," Chapo says, "you already beat them up once. They should listen now."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 59m59 minutes ago
In another series of calls from 7/2011, Chapo is talking w/a cartel operative named Gato who is reporting on his bribery of a new Federal Ministerial Police commander.
"Is he receiving the monthly payment?" Chapo asks.
"Yes," Gato responds. "He's receiving the monthly payment."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 58m58 minutes ago
Then, astonishingly, Gato puts the commander ON THE PHONE. Chapo tells the commander that Gato is from "the company" and asks the commander to "take care of him."
"Whatever we can do for you," Chapo says, "you can count on it."
The commander says, "You have a friend here."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 54m54 minutes ago
Then Chapo is talking w/a guy named M10 who was central in the war against Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' breakaway group, La Linea. It's pretty clear Chapo has enlisted public officials in the war, asking M10 if he's reached out to a "governor." M10 says they're in "daily contact."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 57m57 minutes ago
Fascinating series of phone calls played just now in the courtroom. We're getting an unfiltered look at how Chapo ran his organization. He's talking with his underlings, giving orders, cleaning up messes, handling the day to day of being a cartel boss.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 57m57 minutes ago
Another great exchange from Chapo's conversation with Cholo Ivan (who was fighting the cops.) "Take it easy with the police," Chapo says. "Well," Ivan says, "you taught us to be like a wolf, acting like a wolf. I'm remembering and that is how I like to do it." Good lord.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 59m59 minutes ago
Several calls were between El Chapo and Cholo Iván, his chief enforcer in Sinaloa. Chapo and Cholo were captured together in 2016. This is them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 58m58 minutes ago
Cholo comes off as a hothead who is making problems for Chapo in Sinaloa by getting in fights with police officers. At one point, Chapo scolds him: "Talk to you them, you know that they are policemen, it's better not smack them around."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 57m57 minutes ago
In another exchange, Chapo tells Cholo: "Once you have them tied up and such, check it out to make sure we don't execute innocent people." In response, Cholo warns that his people are "quick to act."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 55m55 minutes ago
Another exchange about cops:

Cholo: "I kicked their asses — local, federal — all of them."

Chapo: "Don't be so harsh, Cholo, take it easy with the police."

Cholo: "You taught us to be like a wolf, to act like a wolf, that's how I like to do it."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 55m55 minutes ago
And one more. Chapo tells Cholo: "Don't be chasing cops, they're the ones who help. Leave them alone… talk to them calmly, otherwise they can call the soldiers."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 54m54 minutes ago
More calls being played now. Updates to come. Stay tuned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Prosecutors just played a well-known video of Chapo that was originally uploaded to the website LiveLeak and is now on YouTube. It purportedly shows Chapo interrogating a member of Los Zetas. FBI witness authenticated the footage. This is it:

El Chapo Guzman Interrogando a un Zeta

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 6m6 minutes ago
Incredibly, the FBI picked up part of the convo from that video while they had access to Chapo's encrypted comms network. Somebody who was present with Chapo at the time attempted to make a call. FBI got the recording. It matches up almost exactly w/ the dialogue from the video.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4m4 minutes ago
FBI agent did not identify the person tied to a pole during the video interrogation. He just confirmed that it was El Chapo doing the interrogating.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 36s36 seconds ago
This was a rough day for the defense. The calls that prosecutors played for the jury are perhaps the strongest evidence yet that Chapo oversaw day-to-day cartel operations, including dealing w/ dirty cops, fighting rivals for territory, arranging drug shipments to the US, etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------