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

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton Retweeted
PBS NewsHour‏Verified account @NewsHour 17h17 hours ago
"It was a pretty remarkable week in the courtroom" during the trial of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, @keegan_hamilton of @vicenews tells @hari. "It felt like a soap opera at times..."

(video clip: PBS NewsHour on Twitter )


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 17h17 hours ago
Update on secrecy in the Chapo trial. The defense & prosecution just filed a letter responding to complaints by @nytimes and @VICE that too many documents were filed either under seal or heavily redacted. Here's what the parties are proposing subject to the judge's approval.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 17h17 hours ago
Four days after the govt rests, prosecutors will unseal their filings or explain why they should continue being secret. W/in 30 days of a verdict, the filings will be unsealed or at least we'll get a reason as to why they are not.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 17h17 hours ago
This is a) pretty good news on the transparency front b) likely to reveal interesting and previously unknown things about the trial and c) due to the hard work on unsung lawyers at both organizations.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 16h16 hours ago
There's also a 60-day unseal-or-explain-why-not deadline for more recently filed documents. But again, it's not a bad resolution to the issue.
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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Hello from Day 32 of El Chapo's trial. More testimony coming this morning from Lucero Sanchez, the mistress who was with Chapo when he escaped naked through a tunnel under his bathtub. But there's more to her story. Lots more.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/eve44j/the-strange-terrifying-tale-of-the-mistress-who-flipped-on-el-chapo … @vicenews

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
ICYMI: Here's what happened with El Chapo's naked escape through the hidden tunnel under his bathtub. This is where Lucero left off with her testimony last week.

El Chapo escaped naked through a tunnel with his mistress. Then he got captured.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Here's footage from the raid by the DEA and Mexican marines that forced Chapo to use his bathtub tunnel. It shows the steel door that bought Chapo and Lucero enough time to escape, and the mechanism that opens the tub.

Watch The Raid That Led To El Chapo's Capture

"Around 4 a.m. on February 17, 2014, DEA agents and Mexican marines launched an operation to capture Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. They had tracked El Chapo to a safe house in the city of Culiacán, and the raid began when the marines started hammering on his front door with a battering ram."

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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Back to Lucero and the info that wasn't mentioned last week during her testimony.

She was a state lawmaker in Sinaloa from 2013-16. It was a big scandal when she was caught trying to use a fake ID to visit Chapo in prison.

She was pregnant at the time.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/eve44j/the-strange-terrifying-tale-of-the-mistress-who-flipped-on-el-chapo …

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Lucero maintains that she was a victim who became trapped in a relationship with Chapo. Prosecutors have shown text messages where he appears to threaten her. Both her sister and ex-husband were murdered in Sinaloa.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/eve44j/the-strange-terrifying-tale-of-the-mistress-who-flipped-on-el-chapo …

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
There's some evidence that suggests Lucero was very involved in the cartel. Prosecutors accused her of laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars for Chapo. She also allegedly reached to Chapo's sons about drugs after the bathtub tunnel escape.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/eve44j/the-strange-terrifying-tale-of-the-mistress-who-flipped-on-el-chapo …

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Lucero's story is complicated. Even after she was caught up in her scandal w/ Chapo, other lawmakers in Sinaloa spoke up to defend her. One said that her “only sin is having some sentimental involvement, you can say, with the wrong person."

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/eve44j/the-strange-terrifying-tale-of-the-mistress-who-flipped-on-el-chapo …

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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
One thing recurring theme is that Lucero is very sympathetic toward impoverished marijuana farmers in Sinaloa. She testified about using Chapo's money to help the poorest of the poor. This article mentions her distributing food and groceries to them.

RIODOCE

(Google translate:
Deputy Lucero Guadalupe, from Cosalá

Posted on December 13, 2015

The sentimental life of the young local deputy of the Sixteenth district of Sinaloa, Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López, is a matter that only concerns her as a human being and without a doubt it is a strictly personal issue. But when the lawmaker is linked to Joaquín Guzmán Loera, alias Chapo Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, the issue takes on another look.

The personal relationship that is attributed to Sánchez López with Guzmán Loera has been investigated by the intelligence areas of the Ministry of the Navy, since his first visits to the capo in the maximum security prison El Altiplano, in the State of Mexico (The List Negra, October 18).

The Navy assigns him that his youngest son - about 10 months old - was procreated with the capo. This relationship was confirmed in ministerial statements made by the agents of the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN) in the first interrogations made by the PGR after the escape of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, which took place on July 11, who affirmed that the The legislator was going to visit Chapo and she even used false documents to do it....

The presumed woman of the same capo goes to the inauguration of the Livestock Fair and is portrayed next to the President of the Livestock Regional Union of Sinaloa, Faustino Hernández Álvarez, who makes a visit to the theme park "More Culiacán" and comes portrayed embraced with the current governor, Mario López Valdez. In Cosalá, she not only heads events distributing food and groceries to those displaced by the Navy and Army operatives, but in the months of April and May she has led events of the day of the child and the mother where she has distributed gifts as a domestic appliance, crockery and toys for children. The activities of Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López seem to indicate that she and her supporters aspire to a more important career and political influence....."

- more @ the link

RIODOCE )


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
One big question is what happened with her arrest at the border. Some reports say she was planning to go shopping. Others say she wanted to claim asylum for herself and her two kids. Expect to hear more about that today.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/eve44j/the-strange-terrifying-tale-of-the-mistress-who-flipped-on-el-chapo …

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Heading up to the courtroom, stay tuned for updates…
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Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5h5 hours ago
When we last heard from the Chapo trial, the kingpin's mistress, Lucero Sanchez Lopez, was narrating the story of escaping a dragnet of Mexican marines with a naked Chapo thru a tunnel under his safe house bathtub. She'll be back on the stand at 930 to finish the tale. Stay tuned


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5h5 hours ago
After her cross-examination, we may get another cooperating witness from within Chapo's organization. There are only a few more govt witnesses left. Among those we've heard about but haven't yet seen: Cesar Gastelum, who ran Chapo's ops in Honduras, and Damaso Lopez, a top aide.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5h5 hours ago
The prosecution's case is winding down and may come to a rest by the end of the week. Then the big question will be: Does Chapo himself take the stand? Could be an interesting week...
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Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 4h4 hours ago
And we’re back for Week 11, with Chapo’s ex-lover returning for her second day of testimony. She broke into guttural sobs on the stand on Thursday. Who knows what dramatic surprises await today, when the defense will likely take a shot.

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 4h4 hours ago
Shall be regretting these lace-ups by midday ... headed into court, where you have to remove your shoes every time you enter the room. That’s a minimum of five times based on breaks, and that assumes nothing newsworthy happens, and I have to duck out to call my editor.

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Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3h3 hours ago
Ok, the day is off to a good start. Chapo just entered the courtroom in a red velvet smoking jacket with a red handkerchief in the lapel pocket...


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Thought it couldn't get better? It just did. Chapo seems to have coordinated w/his wife Emma who is wearing a matching red velvet jacket. The mistress, Lucero, meanwhile, is on the stand in typical jail garb. This seems like a pre-planned sartorial act of solidarity/snubbing.
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Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Anyhow, back to the naked bathtub tunnel escape. Lucero said that after she Chapo emerged he was desperate & wanted to steal a car. But his secretary Condor phoned an ally who picked them up and brought them to another safehouse where, as Lucero put it, "El Senor got dressed."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
The getaway guy then took Chapo and Lucero to Mazatlan where she stayed w/him a few days before he went to see his wife at the Hotel Miramar where he was ultimately arrested. Lucero found out about the arrest on TV.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
How did Lucero even find herself in this mess? She told the jury a bit her biography. It's not a pretty story.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Lucero came from the small town of Cosala, a mining and farming hamlet in the Sinaloa mountains. At 8, she was selling empanadas as a street vendor. At 10, she was picking corn, cukes and tomatoes in the fields. She worked in the morning and went to school in the afternoon.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
At 14, through a government program, she became "an early childhood" teacher. But then, as Chapo's lawyer said, there was a "bump in the road."
She met a guy from a pot growing area outside Durango. They got married. She was 16.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
When her husband became physically abusive, she left him. It was only a few years later that she met Chapo. That didn't end well either.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
After Chapo's arrest, he sent her a love letter with instructions on how to visit him in prison with a fake ID. He opened the letter, "My Queen, Who is Loved." By that point, Lucero was already a state legislator from her home area in Sinaloa.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
After she saw Chapo in prison, the photos of her visit leaked to the media. A year or so later, she was impeached from office. Even worse, she started getting death threats from Chapo's enemies.
Even worse, in 6/2017, when trying to enter San Diego, she was arrested.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Small correction: I have been told by a good source that the matching smoking jackets are either burgundy or claret, not mere red. I apologize for the error.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 41m41 minutes ago
As absurd as all this is, I don't mean to make light of it. Lucero's story is a kind of tragedy. Chapo met her at 21, groomed her to work him, didn't pay her and, at times, terrified her. She said he once told her that everyone who betrays him dies. The message was pretty clear.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 40m40 minutes ago
She lost her job as a politician, was arrested and prosecuted in the US. And now, after she appears as a witness, weeping on the stand that she's still--still!--confused about their "relationship," he pulls this stunt with the smoking jackets.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 39m39 minutes ago
The message there seemed pretty clear too. He and Emma dressed in burgundy together like royalty. Lucero alone in her blue prison smock.
Oof.
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Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1h1 hour ago
Women have played a peripheral role in Chapo's trial, until the government's first such cooperating witness, Lucero Sanchez took the stand Thursday. Today the defense (surprisingly) did what the prosecution failed to do: humanize Chapo's lover as more than just that. Here's why:


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1h1 hour ago
Lucero had no drugs on her when she was arrested at the border in June 2017. But border patrol ran her through a database and noted her connection to El Chapo. She was arrested, extradited and eventually pled guilty to having 5+ kilos of cocaine ... which she didn't have.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1h1 hour ago
Lucero has previously said of the arrest and her relationship with Chapo: “Primarily, I thought it was because of everything that was coming out in the press that I supposedly had a relationship with him.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1h1 hour ago
Lucero was also a last-minute witness, agreeing to a plea deal just month before the trial started, in the hopes of receiving a reduced sentence. Based on the cocaine charge, she faces 10 years to life.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1h1 hour ago
Two stories. From the prosecution: a lover and disgraced local congresswoman who escaped in a tunnel with Chapo weeks before his Feb. 2014 arrest. From the defense: a woman escaping an abusive relationship and charged with a crime she didn’t commit for of a love she didn’t deny.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 1h1 hour ago
In turn, on Day 2 of Chapo’s lover’s testimony, Chapo’s wife came to court with several jackets. And later in court, he and Emma donned matching burgundy velvet jackets. And I think that’s statement enough from her.
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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 5h5 hours ago
The next witness after Lucero is expected to be the government's last major cooperator: Dámaso López aka El Licenciado.

He's the one who orchestrated Chapo's epic prison escape through a mile-long tunnel. He's also mentioned in Episode 7 of our podcast.

EP 7: The Fallout


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4h4 hours ago
Folks, you know it's going to be a good day at the trial: El Chapo just came into the courtroom wearing a red velvet smoking jacket with a red silk pocket square. It's quite the look. Very Hugh Hefner.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 30m30 minutes ago
Lots of updates from this morning, but first it must be said: Chapo's outfit is even better than I first mentioned. He and his wife Emma Coronel are wearing matching red velvet blazers.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 27m27 minutes ago
Lucero was on the witness stand most of the morning. Her story was told in my piece yesterday, but there were some key details about her upbringing that we just learned. Her life is really quite tragic.

The strange, terrifying tale of the mistress who flipped on El Chapo


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 25m25 minutes ago
Lucero is from Cosalá, a tiny town deep in the Sierra Madre mountains. She said the area is known for mining and farming, not drug trafficking. She grew up dirt poor. At age 8, she was selling empanadas on the side of the road to help support her family.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 22m22 minutes ago
At age 10 Lucero was working in the fields harvesting corn tomatoes and cucumbers. She'd work all morning and go to school in the afternoon. By 14, she was enrolled in a teaching program and she worked as a teacher for small children. By 16, her life takes a turn for the worse.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 19m19 minutes ago
At 16, Lucero entered a common-law marriage with a man from Tapichahua, Durango, an area in the Sierra Madre known for marijuana production. Lucero's new spouse was abusive. Her parents also physically abused her.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 16m16 minutes ago
By 2011, Lucero was being wooed by Chapo. We still don't know exactly how they met, but she was a local beauty queen — just like Chapo's wife Emma. It's possible he heard about her and decided she would belong to him.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 14m14 minutes ago
Chapo enlisted Lucero to buy marijuana for him in the mountains. She talked about how he tried to lowball the poor campesino farmers and pay just 250 pesos — about $35 — per kilo. She felt bad and offered them more. She also refused to let them sell to Chapo on credit.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 11m11 minutes ago
Apparently in order to buy weed for Chapo, Lucero needed permission from another trafficker named Guero Trankas, who controlled the pot farms in that part of the Sierra Madre. The defense asked why if Chapo is such a kingpin, he needs to ask somebody's permission?


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 8m8 minutes ago
Another -up detail: Lucero never get paid by Chapo for her work collecting marijuana. She would buy weed for him at 500-650 pesos per kilo and he would sell it for two or three times that much in Culiacán.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 6m6 minutes ago
Lucero said she tried to break away from Chapo at the end of 2012, but she was still with him in February 2014 during his naked escape through the bathtub. She offered some new details about that incident too, like how Chapo got clothes after he made it out of the sewers.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
So Chapo is naked at the end of this sewer tunnel, which feeds into a drainage canal. Lucero: "While we were waiting there he was desperate. He was telling the guy, we have to steal a car so we can flee." Instead, they called Chapo's secretary, who came to pick them up.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Here's what the end of Chapo's escape tunnel looks like. We went there for the podcast. I'm about Chapo's height and had to hunch over to move around. They ran through this thing for over a kilometer, which must have been a nightmare.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/738NnUSvlHzFWOCRx7Giep …

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Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 43m43 minutes ago
We've shifted gears. Damaso Lopez Nunez, one of Chapo's close top aides, in now on the stand. He's just getting started. Damaso met Chapo in 1999 while he was acting as deputy director for security at the Puente Grande prison where Chapo was serving a term after his 1993 arrest.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 43m43 minutes ago
Puente Grande is the prison from which Chapo escaped in 2001 in the bottom of a laundry cart. It's been rumored that Damaso helped Chapo escape, but he says he didn't He did however help Chapo get illegal phones and clothes, and helped get Chapo's wife, Griselda, in the prison.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 41m41 minutes ago
After leaving the prison in 2000 after a corruption probe, Damaso went to work for Chapo first as a kind of real estate broker, procuring ranches and houses for the kingpin. Later as a govt relations guy. That is:
"The govt would give us information when it came to operations."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 40m40 minutes ago
We heard the familiar story of the 2001 escape. How a guard name Chito was the only one who helped Chapo. How Chapo had decided to escape almost spontaneously after he learned there was an extradition order out for him.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Lucero admitted that she used a fake ID to visit Chapo in a maximum-security prison in 2014. She had denied this previously. Prosecutors showed the jury photos similar to these. It's her inside the prison — pregnant. She said they discussed "a personal matter."

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4m4 minutes ago
We didn't get any more details about Lucero's arrest at the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing in 2016, except that she was tackled and injured when she tried to run back to Mexico. No clarity on what happened with her two children. No confirmation that Chapo is the father of one.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Federal prosecutors charged Lucero as if she were a drug kingpin. She faces 10 years to life in prison. She only pled guilty and agreed to cooperate a month before Chapo's trial started. She's basically collateral damage in the government's ques to convict Chapo.
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Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 22m22 minutes ago
Damaso "Lic" Lopez Nuñez, the former deputy director of security and custody at Puente Grande prison in Jalisco is on the stand. Lic is famously credited for aiding Chapo's first escape in a laundry cart in 2001. The part missing from Lic's version?


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 22m22 minutes ago
The story, according to Lic, is that he helped Chapo sneak in a cell phone (with email access) as well as a favorite woman (but didn't aid in the escape). Lic resigned from Puente Grande Prison in September 2000, amidst a federal government investigation into corruption there.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 18m18 minutes ago
The next time Lic saw Chapo, was in the Nayarit mountains after the escape. 50-70 guards had been blamed for helping Chapo, who credited just one man: Chito, who hid him amongst the dirty laundry. At the lift gate, guards checked the car but not the trunk, where Chapo was hiding.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 14m14 minutes ago
"I remember asking my compadre if I had been at the prison would he have escaped then?" Lic recalled. Chapo, said "no," adding that the escape had been "spontaneous" -- spurred on the news that he would soon be extradited to the U.S.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 15m15 minutes ago
Damaso "Lic" Lopez Nuñez said he was “muy cercano” or “very close” to his compadre. Chapo was the godfather at Lic’s son’s wedding, and Lic himself was a godfather at the baptism of one of Chapo’s and Emma’s twins.
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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 12m12 minutes ago
Dámaso López is now testifying. So far we heard about how he was a sub-director at the prison where Chapo was held in 2001. He was corrupt and took bribes to get Chapo special privileges, like conjugal visits from his wife.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 11m11 minutes ago
Dámaso is tall and wiry. He has gray hair and a bald spot. He seems arrogant. He also gave a little sign of respect to Chapo when he first took the witness stand, nodding his head and putting his right fist on his chest.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 10m10 minutes ago
More updates on Damaso to come later this afternoon, he's still on the witness stand. Stay tuned.
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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Damaso just went through what was essentially a lightning round of questions about Chapo and the Sinaloa cartel. The prosecutor skipped around from topic to topic, covering smuggling routes, security, communications, Chapo's family, and more. It was dizzying.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Damaso's most damaging testimony was about corruption. He had two guys — Javi and Roberto — who were Chapo's liaisons w/ the Mexican army, federal police, attorney general's office, and marines. Javi paid out $100K per month in bribes. Roberto paid out over $1 million per month.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
We saw text messages where Chapo and Damaso discuss their relationship with the mayor of La Paz in Baja California Sur. She was a candidate for governor in 2013 and wanted the cartel's help w/ her campaign. She asked them for the favor of assassinating a cop.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Chapo's message to Damaso re: the candidate for governor:

"Yes. She is the favorite and we should do her the favor. Maybe, like, when the cop is leaving his house as a revenge for some gangbanger. Don't be seen. Not with a rifle but with a pistol so it doesn't look violent."
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Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
Like a bad family reunion on repeat, we’ve heard these stories before, and, so far, Damaso Lopez has offered little new. Like this story, which we already heard from both Cifuentes brothers about the wind-shook helicopter that crashed in an ostrich ranch.

An I.T. Guy’s Testimony Leads to a Week of Cyber Spy Intrigue in El Chapo Trial

January 13, 2019

An I.T. Guy’s Testimony Leads to a Week of Cyber Spy Intrigue in El Chapo Trial


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
One interesting tidbit from the intercepted text messages between Chapo and Lic, one more example of Chapo’s ever-innovative techniques: they were conducting studies about how to make synthetic cocaine.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
We also heard of a chilling plot to kill a police officer who was affecting the potential gubernatorial candidacy of a then-mayor in La Paz, Baja California del Sur. She asked for the Sinaloa cartel to “remove” the officer.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
The plan: wait for the officer to leave his home and then stage the killing as though it were done by a vengeful gangbanger. Don’t use a rifle, Chapo directed. Make it look less violent; use a pistol.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
The candidate also requested Chapo’s support in her candidacy. Unfortunately, we don’t (at least yet) know how this one ends.
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[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Damaso is essentially playing Chapo Trivial Pursuit w/the prosecutor. What's Chapo's brother's nickname? (El Pollo) How and when did Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes die? (Shot w/his wife outside a movie theater in Culiacan in 2004.) He's tying up all the loose ends of testimony so far.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
One new thing:
In 9/13, Chapo got a request from his plaza boss in Baja Cali Sur to kill a cop who pestering the mayor of La Paz there. She was w/the PRI and looked like a possible future candidate for state governor. Chapo, in a BlackBerry text to Damaso, gave the kill order.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
"Don't be seen," Chapo wrote. He also instructed the sicarios to use a pistol, not a rifle "so it doesn't look violent." He wanted it to seem as a vengeful "gangbanger" had murdered the cop.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
It's a reminder of just how deeply US law enforcement penetrated the cartel's comms. A wiretap by Homeland Security Investigations run out of a regional office in Nogales, Ariz. captured over 1 million BlackBerry texts in 2013-14. They're just devastating evidence.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
My favorite baller narco moment was Damaso saying how Chapo's pilot once tried to fly a helo out of a warehouse and crashed in a wind gust. The warehouse was located on a former ostrich farm.
Chapo's pal Jorge Cifuentes later pushed the helo off a cliff for the insurance.
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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Other messages between Damaso and Chapo referenced kilos of chemicals used to process and cut cocaine. He said the cartel was experimenting with "synthetic cocaine" — whatever that means. They brought in Colombian chemists to make it for them.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
More testimony from Damaso happening now. Stay tuned for updates.
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[AzPistonsGirl]

great big general THANK YOU and LIKE to YESorNO for all the posts during this trial. Really, really appreciate having it all here, easy to access.

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 28m28 minutes ago
It was a bloody afternoon at El Chapo's trial.

Damaso Lopez testified about at least four murders committed on Chapo's orders, including how the body of Chapo's cousin Juancho was dumped on the side of the road.

We also saw a clip from a gruesome interrogation video.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 26m26 minutes ago
#BREAKING @vicenews: Prosecutors say the government could rest its case against El Chapo as soon as Thursday. The defense is expected to call its first witness next Monday. Still unclear whether El Chapo himself will testify.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 8m8 minutes ago
This is the interrogation video that was shown today at El Chapo's trial.

The beaten and bloody man is Israel Rincon Martinez aka El Guacho.

Damaso Lopez said it was filmed at his ranch near Culiacán in 2008 with Chapo, Chapo's sons, and others present.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 6m6 minutes ago
Damaso testified that Guacho had worked as a secretary for Chapo in the mountains. When the war broke out with the Beltrán-Leyvas, Guacho was accused of defecting and hiring gunmen to fight against his old boss. In the video, Guacho is asked repeatedly about his allegiances.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Damaso said that Chapo got a tip about Guacho being in Culiacán and "ordered him lifted." He was brought to a warehouse on Damaso's ranch where the interrogation occurred. Damaso said Chapo himself asked questions, but the voice on the video belongs to a guy named Javi.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Damaso on Chapo's role in Guacho's interrogation: "He would ask if there were gunmen in Culiacán, whether he had located some targets."

Damaso said he heard Guacho was later killed. When asked who told him that, he replied: "My compadre." That's how he refers to Chapo.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4m4 minutes ago
Damaso also testified that Chapo ordered the killing of his cousin Juan Guzman Rocha aka Juancho or Virgo in December 2011.
We've heard references to this murder before, most notably from Lucero, but Damaso said he was present when Chapo decided to put out the hit.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Damaso said he and Chapo were at a ranch on the outskirts of Culiacan.

Chapo mentioned that Juancho was supposed to be out of town, but Damaso's said people had seen him around.

Chapo was pissed. He ordered his men to snatch Juancho off the street and bring him to the ranch.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 5m5 minutes ago
Chapo's men arrived with Juancho, and Damaso recalled Chapo asking, "What is that rascal saying?"

Chapo's man replied: ""Compadre, he offered me a lot of money to let him go."

Damaso: "He ordered him to take him toward Culiacán and to kill him and leave him on the outskirts."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Juancho was with his secretary, Guero Bastidas.

According to Damaso, Chapo said the secretary knew everything about Juancho: "Therefore he had to suffer the same fate. They were both killed."

Here's a news article about the bodies being found.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/12/relative-of-el-chapo-guzman-murdered-in.html …

( Graphic pics)

Relative of El Chapo Guzman murdered in Sinaloa

December 15, 2011

"The bodies of two male murder victims were found Thursday morning in the small community of Aguaruto located in the municipality of Culiacan on the highway to the neighboring city of Navolato.

Both men had been executed elsewhere before their bodies were dumped in Aguaruto.

The Sinaloa Attorney General's office identified the men as Juan Guzmán Rocha "El Juancho" , reported to be either a first cousin or nephew of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and José Miguel Bastidas Manjarrez "El Guero Bastidas", reported to be a member of Los Antrax, a group of Sinaloa cartel hit men. ...."

Borderland Beat: Relative of El Chapo Guzman murdered in Sinaloa


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Juancho was a key player in Chapo's organization — his name has been mentioned repeatedly as somebody who was trusted with coordinating cocaine shipments. He was also family. There has to be more to the story of his murder than Chapo finding out he lied about taking a vacation.
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