US courts convict "Chapo" of 10 counts against him

Radio France International News from America

February 13, 2019

"El Chapo" Guzmán risks life imprisonment after a New York jury convicted him of ten crimes of drug trafficking, possession of arms and money laundering of which he was accused. The defense has announced that it will appeal. The last sentence will be known on June 25th.

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Richard P. Donoghue, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the verdict of guilty was a victory for repressive authorities for Mexico, where 100,000 people had died as a result of violence related to violence. drugs and families who have lost somebody because of the "black hole of addiction".

"Some say the war on drugs is not worth doing," added Donoghue. "These people are wrong."

However, the Sinaloa cartel headed by "El Chapo" Guzmán for decades in Mexico continues to operate. Between 2016 and 2017, when Guzmán was driven to New York to be prosecuted, heroin production in Mexico increased by 37% and the Fentanillo seizure at the southwestern border more than doubled, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. In its latest report, the DEA warned that the criminal organization Chapo and the Jalisco New Generation cartel continued to pose the greatest threat to the United States.

"The Sinaloa cartel continues to operate but it is highly fragmented and fragmented as El Chapo has managed operations even from the Mexican prison, but the move to the US has completely isolated it and the cartel has begun to to weaken, expand its network of operations, "says Raúl Benítez, researcher in security and drug trafficking at the National University of Mexico.

It's the first time that an American jury has been listening to the most intimate details of funding, logistics and the bloody history of one of the cartels that has been introducing for decades. 39; huge amounts of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs in the country.

For three months, 56 witnesses were heard, including 14 very close to the baron of the Mexican doga, including his first employee, one of his personal secretaries, the lover with whom he fled, son of his best friend and heir to his empire. .

Witness after witness, they described in detail the bribes with which they bought police officers, soldiers and the Mexican political establishment at all levels, including former president Peña Nieto who, according to them, would have received 100 million dollars. They also said that they had donated millionaire bribes to the entire Congress of Colombia.

A key witness was missing, Ismael Zambada García, former partner of "Chapo", aka "El Mayo", and who, according to the defense of Guzmán, is the true brain of the cartel. Fifty years ago, "El Mayo" is free despite the fact that he is wanted by the police.

According to Raúl Benítez, "part of the defense tried to divert the attention of the testimonies on" El Mayo "Zambada, to try to clear the responsibility of" Chapo "to see if the jury believed him convinced," El Chapo "was not the most important but" El Mayo "".

"I have never been confronted with so many witnesses and evidence," said Jeffrey Lichtman, one of Guzman's lawyers. "We did everything we could as defense lawyers."

A. Eduardo Balarezo, another Guzmán lawyer, added about his client: "When he came here, everyone found him guilty … Unfortunately, we did not fight only against the evidence, we fought against the perception of the witnesses. "

Respondent: Raúl Benítez, researcher in security and drug trafficking at the National University of Mexico.

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