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

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 18m18 minutes ago
This is one of El Chapo's mistresses, Agustina Cabanillas Acosta. She was arrested at his house in Cabo. We know that Chapo paid for her to have lipo and used her as a messenger for business dealings. FBI agent detailed Chapo's comms w/ her on FlexiSpy.

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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 13m13 minutes ago
Here's the corroborating info used by the FBI to confirm that Chapo was the one sending messages to Emma Coronel and his mistresses under the name "J." It includes more than we ever needed to know about him, like pants size.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 12m12 minutes ago
And here's the info the FBI used to confirm that Emma Coronel was the one associated with a FlexiSpy account created by Chapo called CharlyBlack11

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[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
As if this day could not produce more astonishing stuff, Christian Rodriguez, the IT guy who put the spyware on the phones Chapo gave his wife & mistress also testified. He said Chapo had him rig a total of 50 phones. Chapo was apparently obsessed with snooping.

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
Almost every day, Rodriguez said, Chapo would call him with questions about the spyware, which was linked to a computer where the kingpin could view reports on the text messages and G.P.S. locations generated by what he liked to call his “special phones.”


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 40s40 seconds ago
Eventually, the reports became so voluminous that Chapo assigned one of his other techies to read them and give him daily summaries. At one point, he asked Rodriguez to install a new feature on the phones, allowing him to remotely — and secretly — activate their microphones.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 34s34 seconds ago
Chapo would play a little game. He would call people who had the “special” phones and chat with them a while then hang up, secretly activate the mic and listen to what they said about him.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5m5 minutes ago
Rodriguez said Chapo once asked him how long it would take to make a computer “special” too. This took place while Rodriguez was at one of Chapo's hide-outs in the mountains. A woman was also there with them.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4m4 minutes ago
When the techie told kingpin it would only take three minutes to install the spyware on the woman's computer, Chapo ordered him to do it. “El Chapo distracted the woman and I installed the spy software,” Rodriguez said.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
Rodriguez is going to be on the stand tomorrow too. We'll likely hear more not only about Chapo's snooping nature, but also the story of how Rodriguez was recruited by the feds to turn on his employer. And then had a mental breakdown when the cartel went after him.
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[YESorNO]

Molly Crane-Newman‏Verified account @molcranenewman 5h5 hours ago
Lawyer overheard talking to client in the EDNY cafeteria: “Does your family cut chickens heads off?”


Molly Crane-Newman‏Verified account @molcranenewman 4h4 hours ago
Lichtman must have broken a record on cross with Marston, earning himself almost 20 objections

“Mexicans have mustaches,” Lichtman said, taking issue w the witness's means of ID'ing Guzman

“I don’t know if that’s a fact, sir,” the agent responded.

“Mexicans even wear hats?”



Molly Crane-Newman‏Verified account @molcranenewman 4h4 hours ago
The lawyer asked why Marston relied on the Rolling Stone interview rather than voice recognition technology when ID'ing Chapo's voice on the calls

"Do you think that would have put you guys over budget in this case?"

Objection/sustained.


Molly Crane-Newman‏Verified account @molcranenewman 4h4 hours ago
The back and forth was straight up theatrical.

"Colombia is more known for cocaine than Micronesia, right?" Lichtman asked.

Objection.

"Do you know?!" Cogan asked the witness.

"No."

"He doesn't know!" the judge exclaimed.

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[YESorNO]

Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 7h7 hours ago
1/ Astonishing testimony in the Chapo trial today. He apparently installed spyware on the phone of his wife, Emma Coronel, as well as on phones of other women with whom he was having trysts. FBI flipped the guy who bought those spyware licenses; used it to spy on Chapo himself.


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 7h7 hours ago
2/ So we heard, read aloud in open court, private text-msg communications between El Chapo and Emma Coronel from 2011-2012. Calling each other "love" and "darling," the couple discussed plastic surgery (liposuction), guns, construction of a new house, their daughters, and more.


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 7h7 hours ago
3/ Chapo tells Emma to let him know if she sees suspicious-looking cars so he can check it out. He asks her, "Any weapons there, love? Do you have a gun?" "Yes," she replies. "I have the one you gave me."


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
4/ Chapo: tells Emma that if she doesn't hear from him, it means authorities have arrived. "And make sure you delete everything every time we're done chatting, love."

"I love you, love," Emma replies. "Talk to you soon." There was a raid that same day.


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
5/ Mexican police raided a Los Cabos mansion in February 2012, missing El Chapo but detaining several others. His next text to Emma says, "All right, all is well, love." He says he's on the road and will talk to her later.

AP Exclusive: Mexico police nearly nabbed El Chapo

March 12, 2012

"Much like the late Osama bin Laden, the man the U.S. calls the world's most powerful drug lord apparently has been hiding in plain sight.

Mexican federal police nearly nabbed Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in a coastal mansion in Los Cabos three weeks ago, barely a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with dozens of other foreign ministers in the same southern Baja peninsula resort town.

Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas, Mexico's assistant attorney general in charge of organized crime investigations, confirmed on Sunday that there was a near miss in late February in the government's efforts to arrest the man who has become one of the world's top fugitives since he escaped prison in a laundry truck in 2001.

"We know he was there," Salinas told The Associated Press....."

AP Exclusive: Mexico police nearly nabbed El Chapo


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
6/ A text to Emma from the date of the raid says, "I had to rush out at 3 in the afternoon, love." Says he "was able to jump out."

"Oh, love, that's horrible," Emma replies. Later: "I'll be watching TV to see what they say, love."


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
7/ He asks her to buy him some clothes -- 32x30 jeans; two pairs of black shoes, Mexican size 7. And some black mustache dye.


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
8/ There was also an exchange where Emma Coronel was chatting with Chapo and appeared to put her father on the phone so he and Chapo could discuss business. Inés Coronel Barreras is a convicted Mexican drug lord.

Emma Coronel, 29, is in the courtroom gallery today as usual.


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
9/ We also heard messages between Chapo and his alleged lover, Augustina Cabanillas Acosta, who also acted as a middlewoman on some drug trafficking details, according to this morning's testimony. Chapo supposedly tapped her phone as well, which is why we have these exchanges.


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
10/ It appears Chapo bankrolled plastic surgery for both Augustina and Emma. Augustina, too, calls him "love."

At one point Augustina tells Chapo someone is asking if he has the materials.

"Marijuana or cocaine?" Chapo asks.

"The small ones," A responds.

"Cocaine?"

"Yes."


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
11/ But Augustina also suspected Chapo was spying on her, according to her message history. "I don't trust these Blackberries, the ones he gives me," she writes at one point. "Because this can locate them."


Amanda Ottaway‏ @amandaottaway 6h6 hours ago
12/ More info on the FBI's phone hacks in this great story by @keegan_hamilton.

How the FBI hacked El Chapo’s encrypted phone network
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 10m10 minutes ago
Here's the diagram that Christian Rodriguez used to explain the encrypted communications network he made for El Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel.

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[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13m13 minutes ago
“She received time served,” the agent said of Andrea Velez, who worked with and later cooperated against the Cifuentes family. “But she did not spend a day in jail.” Time served being the one day she was brought in to be fingerprinted.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 12m12 minutes ago
Speaking of crazy deals made in this trial, it’s worthy to note that if you sell 450 kg of cocaine or more, you’re guaranteed a life sentence … unless of course you’re just about every witness that’s testifying against El Chapo.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 10m10 minutes ago
After damning text messages between El Chapo and trusted associates came to light (the FBI got a hold of them thanks to Chapo’s own IT guy who had set up the spyware) the defense threw *several* Hail Marys.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 9m9 minutes ago
The defense started with the FBI agent’s lackluster description of Chapo’s identifying characteristics, which rounded down to a mustache and a baseball cap: “The point is people who wear mustaches and hats aren’t a shocking minority of people is it?” the defense attorney asked.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 9m9 minutes ago
The defense also argued that - like fingerprints - voice prints are unique to every individual. But no voice analysis was conducted on the Chapo recordings. “Do you think that would’ve put you over budget on this case?” the attorney asked the agent. (The prosecution objected.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 9m9 minutes ago
The prosecution volleyed back -- defending the discrepancies in Chapo’s voice between recordings. (No official voice analysis was done.) Voices can sound different based on age, stress and exhaustion.
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[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 9m9 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez took the stand at the end of the day. (He’s the guy the I.T. guy the FBI cornered and turned at a New York hotel.) Impressively, he built a communications system for both the Cifuentes clan and El Chapo.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 9m9 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez is the second witness who court artists have been instructed not to depict in an identifiable way. (The first was Miguel Angel Martinez - one of many “Gordos.”)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 7m7 minutes ago
At first, Christian Rodriguez spoke almost inaudibly. Even the judge (who has been habitually lenient with soft-spoken witnesses) asked him to speak up. But once he dove into the intricacies of El Chapo's I.T. system, his voice rose with clarity and confidence – another person.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 7m7 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez is such a valued witness – credited with helping bring down Jorge Cifuentes - the government not only paid him to continue working with Chapo and the Cifuentes clan, they’re considering giving him a $5 million award for it, too. (We met Jorge a few weeks ago.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 7m7 minutes ago
The FBI agent said that Christian Rodriguez deserved the $5 million reward - he’d even put him up for it, along with two others that helped bring down the Cifuentes family. “I think his efforts were pretty extraordinary in helping us capture Jorge Cifuentes,” he said.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 6m6 minutes ago
After a few semesters of college, Christian Rodriguez dropped out of school to start his own I.T. business. He caught the attention of the Cifuentes family, building them a secure server communications system. They’d connect him to El Chapo, and Christian would build him another.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 5m5 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez took what we’ve come to know as the usual transportation method for Chapo meetings: via small plane on clandestine airstrip into the Northwestern mountains of Mexico. He met Chapo in 2008 for a face-to-face sales pitch. It would be the first of many meetings.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 3m3 minutes ago
At that first meeting, El Chapo told Christian Rodriguez that “he didn’t like to write on the computer. He preferred to talk." Christian told him he could build the system for phones. A month and a half later, the I.T. guy then in his early 20s, was invited back to Mexico.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 3m3 minutes ago
They struck a deal, with Chapo agreeing to pay $100,000 for the phone communication system. (Based on his incessant calls in the ensuing months, I wonder if Christian Rodriguez got a pay increase.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 30s31 seconds ago
The phone communication system includes an adaptor allowing a conventional analogue system (i.e. Chapo’s Nokia phones) to make calls to the internet. A trunk server enabled Chapo to make secure calls worldwide. Here’s the diagram the I.T. guy used to explain it to Chapo.

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2m2 minutes ago
Chapo was so interested in making sure his system worked properly that Christian Rodriguez began making frequent trips to see him – flying out on the clandestine airstrips every one and a half months.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2m2 minutes ago
Chapo also asked Christian Rodriguez for spy software. (Remember Chapo’s theory that the more you know about your friends and enemies the better prepared you are?) Well, he seems to have REALLY taken that to heart.
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[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2m2 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez (Chapo’s IT guy), said Chapo asked him for spy software to install in about 50 associates’ phones … and even other devices like computers. The phone devices tracked GPS coordinates and included secret microphones so Chapo could invisibly call and listen in.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2m2 minutes ago
El Chapo also wanted direct access to what the spy software picked up on his associates, so Christian Rodriguez set it up so that with just a web page username and password Chapo could see his spy-news feed, complete with GPS coordinates.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2m2 minutes ago
Chapo started making a habit of calling associates regarding business, hanging up and then making a second invisible call to activate the microphones in their phones so he could listen in on their real opinion of him in real-time. (I’m so not that brave/ self-loathing.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1m1 minute ago
Whenever Chapo had questions about his spyware (ie. the GPS location wasn’t updating or a certain device hadn’t been reporting info lately), he’d just ring Christian Rodriguez through his own secure line. He called “casi todos los días,” Christian said -- almost every day.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 50s51 seconds ago
Alex Cifuentes and El Gordo told Christian Rodriguez that Chapo REALLY liked the spyware. Saying “it was like his toy.” Eventually, though, the screen-time became too much of a time-suck for the narco lord, so Chapo secretly passed the job on to Benjamín, a trusted employee.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1m1 minute ago
Benjamín gave Chapo frequent spy-report summaries. Since sitting at a computer with headphones is not your typical cartel job, (even to listen in on people without their knowledge) Chapo instructed he shrug off questions by claiming he was listening to music.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1m1 minute ago
Once the spy job passed to Benjamín, Christian Rodriguez started getting calls from him several times a day. “He would say El Señor - referring to Chapo - needs this fixed,” he recalled.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 3m3 minutes ago
Emily Palmer Retweeted Alan Feuer

Here's the thing, Chapo's extramarital texts are WAY less interesting than the ones with his wife. And that's saying something. The morning flew as we combed through Chapo's most private messages.

---Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 6m6 minutes ago
After yesterday's epic tale of the IT guy who built El Chapo a secure communication system then worked with the FBI to crack it, it didn't seem like the kingpin's trial could offer better. Then came today's tale of marital--and extramarital--text messages.

El Chapo Trial: Kingpin Used Spyware to Obsessively Monitor His Wife and Mistress

El Chapo Trial: Kingpin Used Spyware to Obsessively Monitor His Wife and Mistress
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[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 11m11 minutes ago
Finally, let’s talk about the objections in El Chapo’s trial today. A fellow reporter counted at least 15 objections and 6 sidebars (often the result of a disagreement over those objections) just during the defense’s cross-examination of a witness who ran El Chapo’s I.T.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 12m12 minutes ago
The Chapo trial got so heated that the judge had to wave the defense attorney down when he blew past his sustained objection. “Pretend I’m not here,” the judge said wryly.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 10m10 minutes ago
Also of note in Chapo’s trial: a reporter complained today about the obsessive use of sidebars -- even when the jury is not in the room. (Sidebars are when the attorneys talk with the judge up front so the jury can’t hear.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 10m10 minutes ago
The judge told the reporter that he could get a transcript of the sidebar … but those have begun trickling in at a turtle pace.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 7m7 minutes ago
The reporter’s complaint came on the heels of yet another sidebar in Chapo’s case. After promising the reporter an available transcript, the judge later equivocated, saying the entire thing would NOT be available to the public -- citing safety concerns. Secrets, secrets.
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[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3m3 minutes ago
The question of why El Chapo's wife showed up in court today for the humiliating ordeal of having not just her own private text messages w/him revealed to the world, but also those of him and mistress is an utterly fascinating one. Here are some theories.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1m1 minute ago
The main idea is that she must, at all costs, be seen to be standing by her man. This is not just lip-service, Tammy Wynette stuff, but in essence a matter of survival.

Emma Coronel almost certainly relies financially on whatever remains of Chapo's fortune.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 7m7 minutes ago
There's also the issue of actual survival. When Chapo gets convicted it will shift the politics of the cartel in a way that could prove dangerous to Emma. She needs allies. One way to keep them is to show that's sticking by El Chapo.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5m5 minutes ago
She's clearly caught in a hurricane of competing forces. And despite the fact that she was deeply implicated in Chapo's criminal enterprise, there's something sympathetic about her, in the way she's shown that she's going to gut this one out.
*End editorial*
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[Chelly]

Good grief! What a wild ride this trial is.

 

[Niner]

Hey YESorNO!!

We have another person following your tweets! and again Thanks for doing them!

Good grief! What a wild ride this trial is.

I know!! Welcome to the thread Chelly!

 

[Niner]

Thursday, January 10th:
*Trial continues (Day 27) (@ 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. 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 22.
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.
1/8/19 Day 25: State witnesses: Edgar Iván Galván, a low-level Sinaloa cartel operator in El Paso. FBI Special agent Stephen Marston (explaining how the FBI cracked El Chapo's encrypted phone network). Trial continues to 1/9.
1/9/19 Day 26: State witnesses: FBI Special Agent Stephen Marston. Cristian Rodriguez, the Sinaloa cartel IT guy who became an informant for the FBI. Trial continues on 1/10.

 

[YESorNO]

Meet the Colombian IT expert who helped the feds snare 'El Chapo' Guzmán

Jan. 9, 2019

"NEW YORK – Cristian Rodríguez was an electronics system engineering student at a college in Colombia roughly a decade ago when he dropped out to follow his dream of building his own business.

Specializing in cybersecurity, the now 32-year-old businessman soon found work as the in-house internet technology guru to two organizations with a more than passing interest in secrecy: Major drug trafficking cartels in Mexico and Colombia.

Rodríguez recounted his experience in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday, telling jurors how he installed electronic systems that enabled accused Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán to run his alleged drug trafficking empire while spying on his associates, family, and others.

"It was like his toy," Rodriguez testified through a Spanish interpreter. He said Guzmán called him repeatedly seeking additional spying applications....

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Cogan, wary of the cartel's reputation for murder and brutality, barred courtroom sketch artists from depicting Rodríguez's face in their drawings.

The results of the cartel tech geek's expertise and betrayal were made clear to jurors through testimony earlier Wednesday by FBI Special Agent Stephen Marston, who discussed secretly intercepted text messages....

Jurors appeared to listen carefully to the allegedly in-his-own-words texts, which were among the few items of first-hand evidence against Guzmán that federal prosecutors have presented at the trial so far....

Rodríguez is scheduled to continue his testimony on Thursday, describing a fateful 2010 meeting that led him to switch teams and become a federal informant...."

Meet the Colombian IT expert who helped the feds snare 'El Chapo' Guzmán
---

FBI confirms El Chapo seen in video grilling man chained to pole (with video clip w English translation)

January 9, 2019

"The FBI revealed that viral online footage purported to be of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is indeed the cartel boss — and helps solidify the case against him.

The clip, first uploaded to Liveleak.com in 2015, shows a man sporting a baseball cap tensely pacing back and forth as he questions another man, who appears to be chained to a pole.

“Oh, so that son of a b–ch was the group’s boss? He was the one in charge of all of Mazatlan?” barks the hat-wearing man, identified by FBI agent Stephen Marston as Guzman himself.

The bound man says no, and that the leader of a group identified by Guzman only as “those f–kers” is in Los Mochis, a city in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Marston did not identify the man being interrogated, though he is reputedly a member of the rival Los Zetas cartel. His fate is unknown....

In the footage, Guzman appears to be holding something, though it’s not clear what it is....

Marston said Tuesday he was sure the cap-wearing man was Guzman, given his penchant for the distinctive hat, plus voice recognition.

Jurors were then shown a series of photos of Chapo in his favorite style of cap — and holding semi-automatic weapons....."

https://nypost.com/2019/01/09/fbi-confirms-el-chapo-seen-in-video-grilling-man-chained-to-pole/
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[YESorNO]

Hello from Day 27 of El Chapo's trial.
More testimony coming this morning from Christian Rodriguez, the Colombian systems engineer who built an encrypted comms network for the cartel. Here's the diagram he used yesterday to explain that network.
Stay tuned for updates.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3h3 hours ago
Expecting the government to call another cooperating witness if Christian Rodriguez finishes testifying today. That's likely be Alex Cifuentes, younger brother of Colombian cocaine kingpin Jorge Cifuentes. Alex was close with Chapo and spent a lot of time with him in Sinaloa.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 30m30 minutes ago
Absolutely incredible testimony just now from Christian Rodriguez. He gave a detailed description of how he helped the FBI locate Chapo by providing real-time GPS info from his phones. Also set up a system to automatically record all phone calls made by Chapo and his people.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 23m23 minutes ago
And the blows to continue in Chapo’s trial, with day 2 of Christian Rodriguez’s testimony, where he recounts meeting with El Chapo, El Mayo and Alex Cifuentes to tell them that their communications system wasn’t secure. Not to worry, he told them: He'd get them something better.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 28m28 minutes ago
Not suprisingly Rodriguez said working for a narco-lord, especially one as paranoid as Chapo, could be a little weird. Chapo, for instance, came to him one day w/the assignment to intercept every message being sent from every internet cafe in Culiacan. Rodriguez tried but failed.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 24m24 minutes ago
With a new and improved communications system, El Chapo decided to reassess the people in his inner-circle, knocking out about half of the people who he’d formerly corresponded with through the less secure system.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 25m25 minutes ago
Christian described how Chapo wanted "interception equipment" to eavesdrop on all calls and text messages sent in Sinaloa, paid $1 million to buy the devices from a supplier in the Netherlands. He also tried to install spyware at "every internet cafe in Culiacan."


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 24m24 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez said that he chose Canada for the location of the communications servers because the country’s privacy laws are more stringent and the government there would have a harder time legally infiltrating it.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 25m25 minutes ago
With Christian Rodriguez as his I.T. guy, Chapo started to dream big: “He wanted to have the possibility of intercepting every single internet cafe in Culiacán,” Christain recalled. Christian said this could be done with a USB plug-in. (No worries, they didn’t actually do this.)


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 27m27 minutes ago
The job could also be dangerous, he said. Not long after the internet cafe assignment, the Army raided Chapo's mountain-top hideout while Rodriguez was up there w/the boss. The IT guy had to go on the lam w/the narcos, walking for three days through the mountains.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 25m25 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez’s last meeting with Chapo didn’t go so smoothly, though. The authorities were after Chapo, and during the meeting they learned that the agents were headed in their direction. “He was very calm,” Christian recalled of Chapo. Christian said he was “very scared.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 26m26 minutes ago
To elude the authorities, Chapo, Christian Rodriguez and others walked through the mountains for three days, stopping in at homes for shelter and food. Safe from authorities, he returned to Colombia and told Chapo he would continue tech support remotely.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 25m25 minutes ago
The gunmen, Rodriguez said, were carrying "large weapons" & "very large weapons." After three nights, they were finally able to return to the city. Chapo, Rodriguez said, "was always very calm, very sure, very tranquil." And how was the techie feeling? "Very badly," he said.



Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 27m27 minutes ago
P.S. Chapo didn’t bother carrying his own cell phones around … he had a communications secretary for that.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 27m27 minutes ago
Once Christian Rodriguez began cooperating with the FBI, he labeled calls with Chapo’s voice in the file name as: “---C---.” Then he’d email the calls over.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 21m21 minutes ago
Rodriguez tweaked Chapo's encrypted comms system so that "all calls recorded during the day were copied automatically" to a server. FBI was given admin access to this server. Rodriguez also personally listened to calls and sent ones w/ Chapo's voice to the FBI.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 19m19 minutes ago
The cartel eventually figured out Rodriguez was a snitch. Rodriguez heard his Colombian employers say on one call that "it had been confirmed 100%"tht he was cooperating with the US authorities. After that, Rodriguez fled to the US.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 28m28 minutes ago
But then: “I heard a call between Alex Cifuentes and his mom in which he said I was cooperating with the U.S., and it had been confirmed 100 percent,” Christian Rodriguez told the jury. Frightened, he moved to the United States.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 29m29 minutes ago
And safely stateside, Christian Rodriguez would go on to help the FBI catch Alex Cifuentes: “I simply installed GPS software on his phone without his knowledge,” he said, adding that he did this remotely.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 29m29 minutes ago
All the stress of his cooperation strained Christian Rodriguez who said he had a nervous breakdown in 2013 and went in for electroshock therapy. (His memory of events with Chapo, Mayo Alex Cifuentes and company appear undamaged.)


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 19m19 minutes ago
The stress got to Rodriguez. He said he had a "nervous breakdown" and had to undergo "electro-convulsive therapy," which affected his short-term memory. He's still taking medication and getting therapy but says it hasn't impacted his ability to recall his work for Chapo.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 18m18 minutes ago
In 2012, the FBI asked Rodriguez to travel to Mexico so he could monitor Chapo's phone activity "in real time" and help orchestrate his capture. That's what led to the raid in Los Cabos where Chapo narrowly escaped.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 17m17 minutes ago
Rodriguez also helped the FBI capture Colombian drug lord Jorge Cifuentes by remotely installing GPS location software on his phone. He's eligible to collect a $5 million reward for his work on that case.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15m15 minutes ago
Rodriguez was cool and calm during his testimony. He's wearing a gray suit, white shirt, and black skinny tie, matter-of-factly describing his extraordinary cooperation that delivered Chapo to US authorities.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 14m14 minutes ago
Rodriguez also told a wild story about how he was with Chapo in the mountains of Sinaloa when the Mexican military came looking for them. They had to traipse through the mountains for 3 days while soldiers pursued them w/ helicopters. He was terrified but Chapo was "always calm."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 14m14 minutes ago
Rodriguez now under cross examination. More updates to come during the afternoon lunch break.
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Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 4h4 hours ago
The job could also be dangerous, he said. Not long after the internet cafe assignment, the Army raided Chapo's mountain-top hideout while Rodriguez was up there w/the boss. The IT guy had to go on the lam w/the narcos, walking for three days through the mountains.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3h3 hours ago
The gunmen, Rodriguez said, were carrying "large weapons" & "very large weapons." After three nights, they were finally able to return to the city. Chapo, Rodriguez said, "was always very calm, very sure, very tranquil." And how was the techie feeling? "Very badly," he said.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3h3 hours ago
After that, Rodriguez put "some distance" between himself and Chapo's organization, training two guys--Charly & El Gordo--to run Chapo's comms on a daily basis. Remarkably, the entire time he worked for the crime lord he only made about $500,000, he said. (Peanuts in this world.)


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
It wasn't long after that the FBI came knocking on his door. Two agents, he said, approached him one day in Bogota, told him they knew he worked for Chapo Guzman and said he was "in serious trouble."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
He agreed to cooperate and help the feds crack into Chapo's comms by the end of the day. At first, he went into the servers himself and downloaded the calls that Chapo made emailing them to the FBI.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Later, he said, he installed recording software in the server that automatically sent copies of all of the calls to a separate server every day at midnight. He also gave the FBI the user names & passwords of all the FlexiSPY accounts that Chapo had installed on various phones.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Then one day he heard a call between Dolly Cifuentes & her brother Alex (who worked w/Chapo) saying they had figured out he was cooperating w/the FBI. The feds pulled him out and brought him to the US where he turned his attention to capturing Dolly & Alex's other brother Jorge.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Rodriguez had set up a similar server for the Cifuentes' & devised a way to remotely install a GPS location tracker on Jorge's phone w/o him knowing. Jorge was eventually captured.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
But Rodriguez didn't fare well even in the US. In 2013, he had a nervous breakdown from the stress of his undercover work. He was hospitalized and received electro-convulsive therapy. Now he's in witness protection, taking his meds and seeing a shrink.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Stay tuned, the next witness this afternoon could be good.
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Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
There’s not much for the defense to say about Christian Rodriguez … he set up the communications systems for Chapo and the Cifuentes family - not to mention Chapo’s spyware system - then he turned around and used such technology against them. And the evidence is hard to ignore.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
“You know how to use computers for good, you know how to use computers for bad, correct?” the defense asked Christian Rodriguez. The defense continued: “For whatever reason you’ve decided to use you very good computer skills for bad.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
The defense alleged that with Christian Rodriguez’s expertise, he could manipulate telephone calls, text messages, video and sound. Christian agreed that he can in fact do all of this.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
The defense alleged Chapo couldn’t have poured over spy reports … he only has a second grade education “and in fact he has a fair amount of difficulty writing,” his defense attorney said. (Judging from Chapo’s text messages: his spelling and punctuation do beg improvement.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
The defense alleged that upon learning that Christian Rodriguez was working with the FBI, Dolly Cifuentes met with him and showed him pictures of his family. She asked if he was in or not. (Christian had no such recollection of any such exchange.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
Also, the defense alleged that Christian Rodriguez used to hack into the U.S.’s energy system grid “simply for pleasure.” (Christian denied the allegation.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
Chapo’s trial could be over sooner than we thought. The prosecution said they expect to rest their argument, giving the floor over to the defense later this month. Chapo’s team requested a witness in government custody, and that person could be in court as soon as Jan. 23.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
Chapo’s team had originally requested three such witnesses to testify, but today they reduced that request down to a single witness in the government’s custody.
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Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 19m19 minutes ago
The defense asked Christian Rodriguez if he had the computer he used to download the incriminating phone calls against Chapo … but he said he’d gifted the computer to a relative.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 19m19 minutes ago
How did he know it was really Chapo on the texts? “Well, I could tell by the way it was written and the content of the messages,” Christian Rodriguez said.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 23m23 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez is done testifying. Last bit of cross-examination focused on payments he received from the FBI for his work as an informant. He got $480K, mostly in cash.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 21m21 minutes ago
Rodriguez didn't pay taxes on that $480K he got from the FBI until after the IRS raised questions about it. He owed $35K. Chapo's lawyer: "That's a good tax rate. I need your accountant."

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 20m20 minutes ago
The government has paid Christian Rodriguez for his cooperation -- close to $500,000 -- much of it in cash. And he didn’t pay taxes on it ‘til more recently. But he said, “I never lied,” adding: “They never asked me about it.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 20m20 minutes ago
By the time the IRS caught up to Christian Rodriguez, he owed $35,000 to the U.S. government - a good tax rate,” the defense noted, adding: “I need your accountant.” So far Christian has paid $10,000 of that, paying a comfortable $250/ month.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 18m18 minutes ago
Despite his work with Chapo and los Cifuentes - and his interest in aiding a Russian crime organization (it was actually a FBI sting, oops) -- Christian Rodriguez never spent any time in jail.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 19m19 minutes ago
We also heard more about Rodriguez's mental health issues. Balarezo noted he suffered "not one but two nervous breakdowns."

Rodriguez: "I had a lot of stress on me, on my mind, on my body. I was not able to sleep so I asked for help and went to a hospital."


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 21m21 minutes ago
“I had a lot of stress on me, on my mind, on my body,” Christian Rodriguez said. “I was not able to sleep. So I asked for help and went to a hospital.” But, the defense said, it was a bit more than that.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 20m20 minutes ago
Christian Rodriguez said he had two nervous breakdowns and electroshock treatment because of the stress of cooperating against Chapo and the Cifuentes family … and from hiding a secret family from his own partner. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 18m18 minutes ago
Balarezo responded, "It was a little more than that though, wasn't it?" After a brief sidebar he asked, "Sir, you were hallucinating, weren't you?"

Rodriguez: "Not hallucinations. I was just not thinking clearly."

Balarezo also noted that Rodriguez was diagnosed as bipolar.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 17m17 minutes ago
Rodriguez had said the breakdown was the result of working as an informant. Balarezo noted that he was also having an affair at the time and was hiding the relationship from his partner, which added to the stress.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15m15 minutes ago
Rodriguez kept his cool despite questions about some sensitive personal information. Most effective point from the defense was about how Rodriguez was never charged and hasn't served any prison time.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15m15 minutes ago
We're getting another witness now, likely Alex Cifuentes. Stay tuned for updates when the trial wraps today at 4:30 pm ET.
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