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NEW YORK (Reuters) – In his keynote address, Mexican jurist Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman told a New York jury that his client was a "scapegoat" of Sinaloa Cartel's real leader in Mexico, Ismael "El Mayo "Zambada.
"He is accused of being the leader while the real leaders live freely and openly in Mexico," said lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman on the first day of Guzman's trial for drug trafficking in the federal court in Brooklyn. "In truth, he did not control anything. Mayo Zambada did it.
Zambada, still on the run, bribed Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Lichtman said.
The spokesman for Pena Nieto said about this accusation: "It's wrong."
Lichtman's statement comes after US Deputy Attorney General Adam Fels exposed the case of the US government, describing how prosecutors would prove that Guzman had gone from a marijuana dealer in the 1970s to the leadership of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. , leaving behind a series of violence.
Federal prosecutors said that Guzman, 61, had led large shipments of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine to the United States. He faces 17 charges and a life sentence when found guilty.
In addition to drug smuggling into the United States, the Sinaloa cartel played a major role in the narco-violence between rival gangs that tore apart parts of Mexico.
More than 200,000 people have been killed – many in cartel battles – since the Mexican government sent troops to fight the drug gangs in 2006.
Guzman, who twice escaped dramatically from maximum security Mexican prisons, was held in solitary confinement in Manhattan and transferred to a Brooklyn court in a guarded procession.
He was one of the most wanted fugitives in the world until his capture in January 2016 in his native Sinaloa. He was extradited to the United States a year later.
In 2009, Forbes magazine put it on its list of the richest people in the world, with a fortune estimated at a billion dollars, but investigators say it is impossible to know exactly how much it was worth.
Guzman used his fortune to buy politicians, police chiefs, soldiers and judges, Mexican prosecutors said. His nickname, a reference to its height of 1.67 meters, is often translated into English as "Shorty".
Several former Guzman associates are known to have entered into cooperation agreements with US prosecutors, citing the possibility that they may appear on the witness stand.
Among them are Vicente Zambada, the son of Ismael Zambada, who pledged to cooperate in a plea deal made public last week, as well as the twins Pedro and Margarito Flores of Chicago, a former drug dealer who has secretly filmed Guzman.
In addition to Lichtman, Guzman will be represented at trial by Eduardo Balarezo and William Purpura, who had previously defended Mexican drug lord Alfredo Beltran Leyva, formerly partner and then rival of Guzman. Beltran Leyva pleaded guilty to drug charges in the United States and was sentenced to life imprisonment by a federal judge in Washington last year.
Report by Brendan Pierson in New York, additional report by Anthony Esposito in Mexico; Edited by Noeleen Walder and Rosalba O & # 39; Brien
