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At Joaquín's "El Chapo" trial in New York, Guzmán heard cartel stories involving bribes, bullets and bloodshed during the second day of the court hearing. A key witness of the prosecution.
Former Sinaloa cartel chief Jesús Zambada told the jury on Thursday that the notorious drug trafficker had ordered him to pay a $ 100,000 bribe to an army general. in Guerrero.
The general "is a friend of mine," he reminded Guzmán in 2004. "Give him a hug and inform him that I will work for the state."
A day after describing El Chapo as "one of the most powerful drug traffickers in Mexico" and revealing secrets about the inner workings of the lucrative traffic operation that he ran, the former A member of the cartel told the court that the Sinaloa cartel regularly paid bribes to dollars – to high-ranking police officers and officials from all three levels of government.
Zambada, who was extradited to the United States in 2012 as a "public official" in Mexico City between 2001 and 2008, claimed to have paid about $ 300,000 a month in illicit earnings to the federal police. and local, prosecutors, airport officials and even Interpol Agents.
One of the frequent recipients, he said, was the director of the federal Attorney General's office. Another was the chief investigator of the Mexico City police homicides.
In return, they provided protection and information that allowed the cartel's activities to proceed smoothly and turned a blind eye to the crimes, including killings by cartel members, Zambada said.
Through bribes, the former cartel member said on Wednesday: "I controlled the Mexico City airport. . . controlled the authority. "
The bribes paid to the police have been particularly helpful, said the witness, after Guzmán escaped from prison for the first time in 2001 by hiding inside a trolley. machine.
After setting up a helicopter to transport it to a "near-desert place" in central Mexico, Zambada said his brother, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the current leader of the Sinaloa cartel, had embarked Guzmán and was in charge. had driven to Mexico.
When they reached the suburbs of the capital, told the ex-cartel member, Guzmán became anxious when he saw a police car and a motorcycle park in front of his vehicle, unaware that he was not safe. he had planned a police escort.
Zambada told the jury that he had quickly assured Chapo that there was no reason to worry.
"I said, do not worry, these are our people, they are here to protect us."
Zambada also told jurors of bloody wars between rival cartel groups sicarios, or professional killers.
He recounted the details of a bloodbath in a nightclub in Puerto Vallarta in 1992 when, according to Zambada, El Chapo reportedly tried unsuccessfully to have Tijuana cartel trafficker Ramon Arellano Felix killed.
Arellano survived but some of his sicarios and passers-by do not have it.
Zambada also spoke of the murder of a Roman Catholic Cardinal in Guadalajara in 1993 and the murder of a rival trafficker, shot in the head.
The witness admitted to having taken part in several assassination plots in Sinaloa Cartel.
"There have always been many deaths," he said, although he denied killing anyone.
Zambada also told an episode when he was ambushed in a Mexico City store and nearly killed.
Two attackers shot him and a bullet cut his throat.
"I'm alive," he told the jury, "because the bullet did not get into my skull."
Guzmán's trial on 17 counts including drug smuggling, conspiracy, firearms and money laundering began this week as the security of the Brooklyn federal court was tight .
On the first day of the proceedings, an attorney of the accused attempted to present El Chapo as a "scapegoat".
The true Sinaloa cartel leader is Ismael Zambada, Jeffrey Lichtman told the jury, claiming that El Mayo had paid bribes to President Peña Nieto and former president Felipe Calderón in order to avoid being caught.
Both presidents vigorously denied the request.
The trial, which is expected to last between two and four months, will resume Monday after a three-day suspension.
Source: El Financiero (sp), Associated Press
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