35 days of murder, matching mistresses and velvet blazers



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From Rich Schapiro

They heard about the moment when he escaped a police raid by rushing, naked naked, in a tunnel concealed under a bathtub, followed by his mistress.

They read text messages that he had sent to his wife, including one in which he asserted that their daughter was so brave that he was going to "give her an AK-47 to be able to stay with me" .

And they listened. as a former partner described seeing him brutalize two rivals with a stick for hours, shoot each of them in the head, then order his men to throw the bodies in a giant bonfire. "I do not want bones to stay," he said, according to the witness.

The jurors deciding the fate of the famous Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman attended 35 days of surreal and often extravagant testimonies.

On January 8, 2016, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pillar of the drugs, is escorted in a helicopter at the Mexico City airport, having been recaptured during an intense military operation in Los Mochis , in the state of Sinaloa. Alfredo Estrella / AFP – Getty Images File

A total of 56 prosecution witnesses were summoned to the bar, telling stories that sometimes echoed a Shakespearian drama and sometimes described a bloodbath in a cartel of Sinaloa.

The case should be put to the jury. On Monday. It will be up to the seven women and five men to decide whether Guzman, 61, is guilty of trafficking more than 440,000 pounds of cocaine, to have laundered millions of dollars and to have conspired for the future. 39, murder a large number of rivals.

Prosecutors told the jury "avalanche of evidence" proved that Guzman dominated a murderous empire over drugs. Guzman's defense countered that the government's cause was a fantasy concocted by a parade of cooperating witnesses who "lie, steal, deceive, sell drugs and kill people" to make a living.

Brooklyn, New York, kept its promise to reveal Guzman's cunning trick and ruse

. The nicknames of the witnesses – Lollipop, The Fat One, The Godfather – were sometimes as colorful as the testimony itself.

One of them, a longtime bodyguard known as "Memín", was described seeing his boss put an end to his assassination. Life is particularly horrible.

The rival cartel member was tortured for the first time for several days, said the witness, burned with an iron and left to suffer in a henhouse until the workers started complaining. "It was breaking down," said the former bodyguard, whose real name is Isaias Valde Rios.

Guzman ordered his men to dig a grave. Then the blindfolded prisoner was brought before the Sinaloa cartel official, Rios said.

Guzman shouted after the man, grabbed a gun and shot him, said Rios. The victim was still "out of breath" when she was thrown into the hole in the ground and buried under a pile of earth, Rios said.

The trial took a particularly moving turn when the former head of Colombian cocaine, Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, walked. at the bar to testify against Guzman. Abadía's face has shown the dramatic effects of a series of plastic surgeries that he had suffered to avoid being recognized by his rivals or the police.

The Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos "Chupeta" Ramirez Abadia was operated in the same way as in the past. Set of photos published on the left and right after by the Department of Justice on November 29, 2018. Department of Justice / Federal Court of Brooklyn / AFP – Getty Images

Testimonies of bold missions to save a man ship sinks Cocaine parcels – and multi-million dollar political gains.

During one of the most disturbing testimonies, Guzman's personal secretary claimed that the boss had paid a $ 100 million bribe to former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto (Peña Nieto

Guzman was forced to suffer the unworthiness of seeing the text messages that he had exchanged with his wife – and other messages exchanged with his mistress – relayed in the hall of the house. 39, audience

In 2012, he sent a message to his girlfriend asking how drugs were going to be sold "Oh, like busy bees," said the woman, Agustina Cabanillas Acosta. -stop, my love. "

A few minutes later, prosecutors revealed a text message sent by Acosta to a friend, revealing that she knew that he was probably in the process of letting him down. "I'm much smarter than him," she wrote.

During her presqu Three months ago, the trial brought together a plethora of journalists and even famous spectators. Towards the end of the presentation of the prosecution, Alejandro Edda, the actor who plays Guzman in the series "Narcos: Mexico" of Netflix, entered the audience hall.

Edda then told reporters that being so close to Guzman had "dried his hands". and [traduction] "his heart beats fast"

Emma Coronel Aispuro, former wife of Guzman's beauty queen, added a layer of drama to the proceedings without saying a word. A few days after the appearance of Guzman's mistress at the helm, the cartel official and his wife appeared in court to associate blazers in burgundy velvet, a manifestation of apparent dress solidarity. Lawyer Michelle Gelernt answers reporters' questions in Brooklyn federal court after hearing in the Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman case on February 3, 2017 in New York. Don Emmert / AFP – Getty Images File [19659014] It took eleven weeks for federal prosecutors to present their case. The defense rested after 30 minutes.

Guzman spoke aloud once when he politely told the judge that he chose not to testify for his own defense.

"Mr. Justice, my lawyers and I have talked about it," Guzman said "and I will book."

Now, it's up to the jury to talk.

Emily Berk ] contributed.

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