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

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
Imagine that on your first day at a new job you are made to fly in a tiny Cessna with a guy name Fantasma and when you land at a makeshift airstrip deep in the Sierra Madre mountains someone walks up and hands you an AK-47, a flak vest and a rocket propelled grenade launcher.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
The rules of your new workplace are explained to you.
You will be on for one month, one for one month.
You will be sleeping in what amounts to a hole in the ground you have to dig yourself.
Under no circumstances will you approach the boss.
If he wants you, he'll call you.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2h2 hours ago
That's pretty much what Isaias Valdez Rios, aka Memin, said today at Chapo's trial. Memin, a former Mexican special forces guy, spent 10 years working for Chapo mostly in what he called the kingpin's "security circle." Memin was also a pilot and did security for Chapo's sons.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Memin is the government's final cooperating witness and is likely to testify about violence that Chapo committed personally: probably the murders of two members of a rival cartel who he is said to have shot at point blank range, ordering his lackeys to dispose of the bodies.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Memin has already talked about his first conversation w/Chapo which took place 10 to 15 days after he arrived a at mountain hideout called The Sky.
Chapo's first words: "Dude, how you doing?"
As Memin said this, he put on a version of Chapo's high-pitched nasal Sinaloan voice.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
Chapo wanted to know about Memin's time in the special forces and how long he served (7 years.) He also told his new gunmen to stay on his toes.
"He said, 'Well here, you really have to be on the look out.'"


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 1h1 hour ago
At first, Memin said, his pay was pretty slim: 2000 pesos a week. ($105 at the current rate.) Later, he made up to 14000 a week. The boss meanwhile had a pair of matching diamond-handled pistols inset w/a panther design--one panther white, one black.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Memín described his first day on the job. He got a call from Chapo's head of security, a guy named Fantasma or Ghost. "He told me to get ready and time had come for me to go to the mountains." Memín knew he'd be working for the cartel, he didn't know he'd be guarding Chapo.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Memín was taken to a landing strip near Culiacán and flown into the mountains, to Chapo's hometown of La Tuna. He was greeted by 30 guys, all wearing tactical vests and carrying weapons — AK-47s, AR-15s, rocket launchers, and grenade launchers. Chapo's security team.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Memín was handed a tactical vest w/ magazines, a long gun, and a rocket launcher. It was his first shift. He'd spend the next month with El Chapo "every single day, all throughout the day." Then he got a month off in Culiacán, though he was still on call if the cartel needed him.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Memín said El Chapo stayed at a house called El Cielo. We could see this place from afar when we visited La Tuna for the podcast. It's on a ridge with commanding views of the village and the surrounding valley. It looked pretty spectacular. Listen:

EP 2: The Legend


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
While El Chapo slept in his house, Memín said the bodyguards "slept pretty much on the ground." They would dig holes to bivouac.

His first days on the job, Memín wasn't allowed to approach the boss. He was told: "Don't even get close because he doesn't trust you yet."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
After about two weeks, Chapo summoned Memín to a meeting. The convo sounded friendly. He said Chapo addressed him as "chavalón" or dude. He asked about Memín's background in the special forces and warned him to be always on the lookout for enemies and the military.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Memín said he was never once in a firefight with soldiers during his years w/ Chapo in the Sierra. The soldiers were too busy raiding pot farms: "When we were up in the mountains, always, the government is already there fighting drug trafficking, meaning marijuana."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Memín said townspeople in the mountains would also use CB radios to warn the cartel when soldiers were approaching. "They would tell you constantly, the watchers, 'the military is on the way.'" Dámaso López would also pass along info to Chapo about specific military operations.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
When the soldiers came through, Memín said, "we would just simply step aside so they could go by, then we would go back to that location." When were in La Tuna, El Chapo's family members told us they were never bothered by military operations.

EP 2: The Legend


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Memín said at first he was paid 2,000 pesos (~$100) per week. Later, his salary increased to 8,000 pesos (~$420) bi-weekly, then finally 14,000 pesos ($735).
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Memín saw Chapo w/ custom weapons, including a short-barreled camo AR-15 and pistols w/ white and black panthers encrusted on the grips w/ diamonds. These, he noted, "weren't anything special." The panther gun is in Chapo's waistband here. Memín said he was present at this party.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1h1 hour ago
Stay tuned for updates. Before the break, prosecutors said Memín would testify about "violent acts carried out by the defendant." This is likely a reference to the grisly murders of Zetas members by Chapo that we heard about before the trial.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/a38kez/the-case-against-el-chapo-drugs-murder-and-some-guys-trump-calls-flippers …

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[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
What's coming next is not for the faint of heart. Please be advised.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
Memin just described two gruesome torture/murders that Chapo was involved in 2006 and 2007. The first involved a member of the Arrellano Felix cartel, the second of two members of the Zetas. The stories are very grim. Zetas first.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 9s9 seconds ago
It was after dark when Chapo's gunmen brought the Zetas up to the roaring bonfire, slumped over the backs of their ATVs. The rival narcos had brutally beaten for hours. They were like "ragged dolls," Memin said. "The bones in their bodies were fractured. They couldn't move."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 6m6 minutes ago
As the ATVs came to a stop, Chapo got on one and his chief of security got on the other. The two rode the vehicles straight up to the open-air blaze so that the Zetas lying on the back could see the flames.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 5m5 minutes ago
Chapo climbed off his ATV and loaded his rifle as his men tossed the Zetas to the ground. He put the barrel to the first Zeta's head. " your mother," he said, pulling the trigger. He did the same to the second.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
It was then he told his gunmen what to do with the bodies.
"Put them in the bonfire," Memin recalled him saying. "I don't want any bones to remain."
So it was done.
All night long Chapo's men fed the fire, Memin said.
Then, in the morning, they ground up whatever bones remained.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15m15 minutes ago
Holy . We just heard the most gruesome and graphic testimony of the trial.
The witness described seeing Chapo personally torture and murder three people. One man was buried alive. Two were beaten, shot in the head, and burned to ashes.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 12m12 minutes ago
During the break prior to this testimony, the jurors were smiling and joking with each other. Afterward, the mood was grim. They all had 1,000-yard stares.

Chapo sat staring at the witness. His wife Emma was expressionless.

You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
This is the first time jurors have heard graphic testimony like this. It's also the first they've heard about violence Chapo committed himself. The testimony of Memin, the govt's last cooperating witness, put the proverbial nail in Chapo's coffin. It was a gut punch to the jury.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 9m9 minutes ago
I'm going to recount the testimony, but be advised: The details are horrific.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 6m6 minutes ago
The witness, Isaias Valdez Rios aka Memín, Chapo's former bodyguard, said the first killing happened in 2006 or 2007 in the state of Durango. Chapo received a phone call, then told his men that El Mayo was sending them a member of the Arellano-Felix cartel who had been captured.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 3m3 minutes ago
The story about the Arrellano Felix guy was as bad if not worse. Chapo had the man brought bound and blindfolded into a graveyard. He reeked, Memin said, after being locked in a hen house for days. He had been tortured so badly w/an iron that his t-shirt was seared into his skin.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Memín said the man had already been severely tortured: "He had been burned with an iron, an iron used to iron clothes. He had been burned all over his body." His shirt was melted into his flesh. He also had burns from a car lighter. The bottom of his feet had also been burned.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1m1 minute ago
Memín: "Mr. Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán was a little upset. He said 'How can they send me this like that? They might as well have killed him."

Chapo went off to bed. The man was blindfolded and locked away in a building for the next three days. Then the interrogation began.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
Chapo questioned his captive about the Arellano-Felix cartel for around 20 minutes, asking for names, locations, and other info. Then Chapo went off to meet with some guests. Later, they moved to another hideout in the mountains of Durango and brought the captive with them.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4m4 minutes ago
Memín said the captive was put "inside like a henhouse-type structure" and left there for three days. "Then later on we told Mr. Joaquín he had this very bad odor because he was pretty much decomposing away."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
When Chapo heard the captive was starting to smell, he ordered his men to go to a nearby graveyard and dig a hole. "I don't want him to hear you're excavating there," Chapo said. After the job was done, the captive was brought to the graveyard. Chapo came carrying a small pistol.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1m1 minute ago
Memín: "Señor Joaquín had a small gun, it was like a .25 caliber. He grabbed it and he put a bullet in the chamber. He removed the safety and put it behind his back." They put the captive near the hole. He was blindfolded and tied up. He was shivering, though it wasn't cold.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1m1 minute ago
Memín said Chapo started to interrogate the man again. "In one of those times he was responding he grabbed his gun and shot him. 'You ,' he said.' Then he ordered us to remove the handcuffs."


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 2m2 minutes ago
The man's grave had already been dug. Tho he couldn't see it through the blindfold, it gaped behind him.
Chapo started to interrogate the man and in the middle of his answers, shot him with a small caliber pistol.
"Remove his handcuffs and bury him," Memin recalled him saying.


Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 43s44 seconds ago
As Memin and another sicario bent to fetch the body, they realized that the small bullet hadn't quite killed the man. He was still gasping for air.
"And that's how we dumped him in the hole and buried him," he said.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 4m4 minutes ago
Memín said that after Chapo shot the man, they dumped his body in the graveyard: "Still the person was sort of gasping for air. That's how we dumped him in the hole and buried him." We never heard the victim's name.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
The second round of killings also occurred in Durango in 2006 or 2007. Again, Memín said it began with Chapo receiving a phone call: "He said, 'Dudes, they are sending us a gift. Licenciado's people grabbed some Zetas close to El Dorado," a town in Sinaloa.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 52s53 seconds ago
When the Zetas arrived, Chapo ordered them put inside a barn. Memín: "Señor Joaquín said 'You can start heating them up,' in the sense that we could start beating them so they would reveal information." Later, Chapo ordered his men to find a secluded place in the mountains.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1m1 minute ago
The Zetas were brought to a spot in the woods about half a kilometer away from where Chapo and his men were camped. "Mr. Joaquín requested like a big branch, like a long stick." Asked why, Memín chuckled: "Obviously he didn't request that to be affectionate with them."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Memín said Chapo beat the Zetas with a tree branch for "quite a long time," maybe two or three hours: "The people there were pretty much like ragged dolls. The bones in their bodies were fractured. They couldn't move."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Memín explained that it was personal with Chapo and the Zetas. There was a war between the cartels. Zetas were not typically from Sinaloa, but these guys were local: "He was telling them, 'You motherfuckers. How is possible you're working for these people? You're betraying us."


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 3m3 minutes ago
After the beating, Chapo ordered his men to dig a large hole, fill it with wood, and start a bonfire. They strapped the Zetas to the back of two ATVs, which Chapo and his head sicario, El Bravo, drove up to the fire pit.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Chapo got off the ATV and chambered a bullet in his rifle: "The Zetas were seeing the bonfire in their faces, they were scared. Mr. Joaquín didn't say much. He just came up and put the rifle to the head and said ' your mother' and shot him." Then he did the same to the other.


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2m2 minutes ago
Chapo ordered his men to put the bodies of Zetas into the bonfire: "He said, 'I don't want any bones to remain.'" Memín said his men stayed up all night feeding the fire "until practically it was daylight." By morning, there was nothing left of the Zetas but ash.
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[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 1m1 minute ago
Trial just wrapped for the day. Judge Cogan told the jury they'll be done hearing evidence by the end of next week. That means we can expect closing arguments and a verdict in the first week of February.

 

[YESorNO]

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 5m5 minutes ago
We still don't know whether El Chapo will take the stand, but the fact that testimony is expected to conclude by the end of next week suggests he will not. Still possible, just looks unlikely at this point.

 

[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
Of all the testimony we’ve heard in Chapo’s trial so far, today’s was some of the most compelling – not just for the truly horrific stories the witness unwound, but also the artistry of his storytelling. SPELL-BINDING DETAIL. Would've liked a Q&A from the audience.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
“When we arrived it was already dark. We went into a graveyard there and we waited there for a longtime,” Memín, one of Chapo’s former bodyguards, said of the hours before a grizzly 2009 shootout near a gas station in Burrion, where Chapo Guzmán’s men shot at Chapo Isidro’s men.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
Chapo Guzmán’s men marked their vehicles with X’s to differentiate their vehicles from those of Chapo Isidro’s. (Yes, “Chapo” Guzmán and “Chapo” Fausto Isidro Meza Flores are different Mexican drug lords; Chapo Isidro was a leader of the loathed Beltrán Leyva Cartel.)


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
As they headed back to the road, around midnight or 1 a.m., Memín saw a man standing in the middle of the street lane “and he started shooting people.” Bullets flew and the original shooter “lay there, dead.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 2h2 hours ago
The 2009 gas station shootout lasted about 15 to 20 minutes. In that time, two of Chapo Guzmán’s men were (not seriously) injured and 7 or 8 of Chapo Isidrio’s men were killed.
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[YESorNO]

Molly Crane-Newman‏Verified account @molcranenewman 58m58 minutes ago
El Chapo tortured and killed three men with his own hands, eyewitness testifies

El Chapo tortured and killed three men with his own hands, eyewitness testifies - NY Daily News

 

[YESorNO]

Alan Feuer‏ @alanfeuer 46m46 minutes ago
As a cartel killer took the stand today, the trial of El Chapo got gory--very gory. There were tales of narco-soldiers buried alive, burned in bonfires, locked in hen houses for days. Chapo was at the center of the violence. (Not for the faint of heart.)

El Chapo Trial: A Cartel Killer Recalls the Kingpin’s Bloodthirsty Side

Jan 24, 2019

El Chapo Trial: A Cartel Killer Recalls the Kingpin’s Bloodthirsty Side

 

[YESorNO]

'El Chapo' trial reveals drug lord's love life, business dealings

JANUARY 24, 2019

"(Reuters) - On a typical day, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman would wake at noon and make calls while strolling under the trees in the mountains of his native Sinaloa state, where he was in hiding, a witness recently testified at the kingpin’s trial....

The prosecution may rest as early as Monday, turning the case over to Guzman’s defense lawyers, who claim the 61-year-old whose nickname means “Shorty” had a smaller role in the Sinaloa Cartel than prosecutors claim.

Here are some of the most colorful tales from recent weeks in the courtroom:..."

'El Chapo' trial reveals drug lord's love life, business dealings | Reuters
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The trial of 'El Chapo' Guzman is revealing more details about his daring escapes

"Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's trial in New York has seen a steady stream of shocking revelations.
Recent testimony has also shed light on his most well-known escapades: his jailbreaks.
One witness alleged that Guzman's wife had a major role in the planning of one breakout — while she was sitting in the courtroom...."

The trial of 'El Chapo' Guzman is revealing more details about his daring escapes
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[Niner]

YESorNO - is there trial today? I'll post this just in case there is...

Friday, Jan. 25th:
*Trial continues (Day 35) (@ 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 29.
1/16/19 Day 30: State witnesses: Alex Cifuentes Villa. Victor Vazquez, a DEA agent who was involved in the capture of Chapo in 2014. Trial continues on 1/17.
1/17/19 Day 31: State witnesses: Victor Vasquez, DEA agent (in Mexico) who captured El Chapo in 2014. Homeland Security Investigative agent (no name given). Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez, a former state legislator from Sinaloa who became romantically involved with Chapo. Trial continues on Tuesday, 1/22, as 1/21 is a holiday.
1/22/19 Day 32: State witnesses: Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez. Dámaso "Lic" López Nuñez aka El Licenciado. the former deputy director of security and custody at Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, who orchestrated Chapo's epic prison escape through a mile-long tunnel in 2001. Trial continues on 1/23. 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.
1/23/19 Day 33: State witnesses: Dámaso López Nuñez aka El Licenciado. Trial continues on 1/24.
1/24/19 Day 34: State witnesses: Isaias Valdez Rios, aka Memin, a former Mexican special forces guy, spent 10 years working for Chapo. Judge Cogan told the jury they'll be done hearing evidence by the end of next week. That means we can expect closing arguments and a verdict in the first week of February. Trial continues on 1/25.

 

[YESorNO]

Emily's tweets from yesterday:

(graphic)

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Today Memín recalled two of Chapo's particularly vicious acts of violence. In a trial that has been relatively blood-free (for the trial of a cartel leader), the testimony of a former bodyguard cast a different mood over the case. Both took place in Durango around 2006/ 2007. #1:


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
By the time the member of the Arellano-Felix cartel reached Chapo, he was already severely tortured: “he had been burnt with an iron” and lighter burns pocked his smoldered body, his shirt adhering to his skin. The pads of his feet were so burned he couldn’t walk.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
The severely tortured man of the rival cartel was brought to Chapo blindfolded. “Mr. Chapo Guzmán was a little upset,” Memín recalled, adding that Chapo asked: “Why did he send me this like that? What am I going to do with him? They should’ve just killed him.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Chapo waited three days, while the man suffered. Finally, he conducted his own 20-minute interrogation. Chapo left him, but his men complained: “We told Mr. Joaquín that he had this very bad odor because he was kind of decomposing in a way.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Chapo directed them to take the live-but-decomposing man to a graveyard. “Then he said, ‘Dig a hole in the graveyard and I don’t want him to hear while you’re excavating here.’” Memín said the men dug a hole, while two men watched the prisoner.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
After, Chapo took a small gun (Memín thought it was a 25-caliber) and “He put a bullet in the chamber. He removed the safe and he put it” (meaning the gun) “behind him - behind his back and he asked us to take him to the hole” (that had been dug for the prisoner).


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
“It wasn’t even cold at that time,” Memín recalled, but still the man - burned over his entire body and smelling of rot - shivered in fear. The blindfolded man knew only what he could hear, the storyteller Memín conjectured.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Chapo approached the burned and blindfolded man. “He started interrogating him” Memín told an aghast jury. “He started asking him questions and in one of those times, Mr. Joaquín shot at him. ‘You ,’ he said.” Then Chapo ordered: “Remove the handcuffs.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
But the shot did not immediately kill the man who had been tortured and left to wait days for Chapo’s multiple interrogations. “And still the person was still gasping for air and that’s when we put him in the hole, and we buried him.”
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[YESorNO]

(graphic)

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Memín, Chapo’s former bodyguard and pilot, told a second bloody story today -- same place and time period: Durango, between 2006/ 2007. Below is the story about two rival Zetas taken hostage in Sinaloa. Chapo called them “un regalo” or “a gift”: [below]
?


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Just a note ahead of the story: The Zetas lived in Sinaloa, in an area controlled by Lic, another witness who testified earlier today. Their apparent sin (and subsequent torture) appears to have been that they were lived in the territory of one cartel and worked for another.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
The Zetas were tied up and shut in a cow shed. Chapo told them: “You can start heating them up,” Memín recalled. (By “heating them up” he meant beating them.) When they were sufficiently beaten, Chapo directed that they take them to a secluded place in the mountains.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Then Chapo asked for a large branch. “We found it, we brought it over to him and then he started torturing them” with the branch. Memín said he didn’t stick around for the beating; his job required him to have quick cell access “and I needed a signal,” so he went looking.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
When he returned “the people there were pretty much already like ragged dolls,” Memín said. “All the bones in their bodies were fractured. They couldn’t move.” Still, Chapo kept beating them with the branch. He also used a weapon he had on him.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
“And he was saying: ‘Hijos de tu pinche madre, how is it possible that you are working with them and you are betraying us?’” Memín recalled of Chapo, who was still hitting the two shattered Zetas. Chapo interrogated them for about three hours.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Chapo instructed the workers “to dig a huge hole and to put some wood inside and make a large fire.” The bonfire made, “later at night he asked for two ATVs to be brought over. … And the ATVs came and the two Zetas were slung over the back grid of the ATVs.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Chapo mounted and started one ATV and Bravo the other. “There was a Zeta on each ATV and they got closer to where the bonfire was.” Men in Chapo’s security circle lifted the men from the ATVs.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Then Chapo loaded bullets into what Memín said was perhaps an AR15. The men (not blindfolded) could see the fire. “Mr. Joaquín did not say much, he just came up to the head of one of them and said ‘Chinga su madre’ and shot him in the head, and he did the same to the other one.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
The men were tossed in the fire. And Chapo told his men: “I don’t want any bones to remain.” Memín said the bonfire burned through the night, until daylight peaked out and only dust was left.
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[YESorNO]

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Meet Isaias Valdez Rios, Chapo’s former bodyguard and pilot (called Memín) who told such detailed stories that one prosecutor stifled giggles during the testimony - perhaps giddy for the success of one of their best witnesses. (And there have been a LOT.) Memín was their 54th.

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
The judge, having enough of our storytelling witness interrupted one anecdote: “Can we have less of a narrative please?” Later: “Just tell us about the conversation between you and the defendant.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Memín said that after what he termed a misunderstanding with Chapo, he faked that his legs were broken, covering them in fake casts and sending Chapo pictures as evidence.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Even so, Fantasma and Bravo found him.
Fantasma: “Memín, what did you do?”
Memín: “Nada, güey." (“Nothing dude.”)
Not nothing according to Chapo who believed Memín had spent cartel money to buy a mansion in Honduras, a new car and Rolexes which he was “handing out” as gifts.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Memín denied the mansion and Rolex allegations but bypassed the new car. (He likely bought one with cartel $.) Bravo believed Memín's story (it was likely thorough) and ignored Penguino’s kill order. “I’m not going to do it,” Bravo said. “I’m first going to talk to my compadre.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Bravo made the call, Chapo determined that it had all been a misunderstanding, assuring Memín: “We’re family.” And around 2008-2009 Memín got the job of taking care of Los Menores - or Chapo’s sons Iván and Alfredo. (Left>>Right) He kept the position about a year.

Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Perhaps Memín’s testimony was so insightful because he served Chapo in so many positions: first as Chapo’s bodyguard, then as guard to Chapo’s sons, and, finally, as a pilot. With the money from Los Menores babysitting, he paid for flight school, finishing early in three months.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Memín started flying for Chapo in 2010, first co-piloting marijuana shipments from the mountains and later taking a Cesna 210 into Central and South America for cocaine and cocaine base pick-ups.


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Memín said that with altered planes he could carry 450-600 kilos, though 600 was “not really something that’s recommended.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Around 2011 he copiloted six flights bearing cocaine from Central and South America. Volunteering a random anecdote: “One time we crashed because they put in about 700 kilos of cocaine and our fuel ran out.”


Emily Palmer‏Verified account @emilyepalmer 13h13 hours ago
Memín also served as lead pilot for four cocaine-laden flights from 2012-2013. As lead pilot he received $80,000, of which he’d pay $30,000 out to the co-pilot. In total he said he had made about $300,000 for the flights on behalf of Chapo - not much in terms of drug money.
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And more from Keegan from yesterday:


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15h15 hours ago
This is Isaias Valdez Rios aka Memín, the ex-bodyguard and pilot who testified today about seeing Chapo personally commit torture and murder.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 15h15 hours ago
This is the diamond-encrusted grip of a pistol that belonged to El Chapo. He also had another one with a white panther.

Memín testified that Chapo typically received weapons like this as gifts: "I never heard Mr. Guzmán say, 'Hey, can you get me a gold-handled pistol.'"

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is there trial today?

No court today

 

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U.S. trial witness says he watched 'El Chapo' murder three people

JANUARY 24, 2019

"...The killings described by Isaias Valdez Rios in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, were the first in the three-month-old trial to be attributed to Guzman himself, rather than underlings following his orders....

Guzman later ordered Valdez himself killed because he wrongly thought he was stealing money, but was persuaded to drop the order, Valdez said. Valdez testified that he went on to pilot drug planes for the cartel.

Prosecutors have said they expect to wrap up their case on Monday. Guzman’s lawyers will then have a chance to call their own witnesses. It is not yet clear whether Guzman will testify himself."

U.S. trial witness says he watched 'El Chapo' murder three people | Reuters
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Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Here's the sidebar conversation from yesterday at El Chapo's trial when @balarezolaw tried to ask Dámaso López about his relationship to the men suspected of murdering @Riodoce_mx journalist Javier Valdez.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5695259-El-Chapo-trial-Sidebar-conversation-about-the.html …

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
For background, read my @vicenews story on how El Chapo's trial has only added to the mystery about who ordered the murder of Javier Valdez.

Who ordered the murder of a legendary Mexican journalist? El Chapo's trial only adds to the mystery


Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
The witness, Dámaso López, accused El Chapo's sons of ordering Javier's murder. Balarezo told the judge he has unspecified "information" that backs up the theory that it was actually López's son who put out the hit.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Judge Cogan stated that López testified Chapo told him his sons ordered the murder, but that's definitely not what López said on the witness stand.

It's actually impossible: Both Chapo and López were in prison when Javier was killed. They were not communicating with each other.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
Balarezo said he has info that "the murder was committed by people associated with" López. That's not new — the two gunmen arrested for Valdez's murder are said to belong to López's faction of the Sinaloa cartel. But this was a chance for López to confirm they did work for him.

Keegan Hamilton‏Verified account @keegan_hamilton 2h2 hours ago
This was a terrible missed opportunity caused by two separate misunderstandings. First, Balarezo forgot he told prosecutors he wouldn't ask detailed questions about Javier's murder. Second, nobody corrected the judge when he misremembered the testimony blocked further questions.
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