Through his attorney, Mariel Colón, one of the few people allowed to have regular contact with him, Guzmán said that for the drug war to stop, authorities would have to go after “politicians on both sides of the border.” Calderoni became a hero in Mexico for helping US authorities crack the case of Enrique Camarena Salazar, a DEA agent kidnapped, tortured and killed by Guzmán’s mentor, “Godfather” Félix Gallardo. Yet the court heard that within two years of that murder, Calderoni was already accepting cartel bribes. A courtroom sketch of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, center, sits next to his defense attorney Eduardo Balarezo, left, in a Brooklyn courtroom on 13 November. In Mexico, he had already been sentenced to 20 years behind bars on drug trafficking charges in 1993, but then escaped the Puente Grande Federal Prison in Guadalajara in 2001.

If he is convicted of accepting bribes, it would be a major stain on the legacies of the two presidents whom he served. The influence of the drug trade runs just under the surface of Valley life. Osiel Cardenas Jr., the son of the former head of Mexico’s Gulf cartel, was arrested at the Sky Sportsbar and Lounge in Brownsville in March, a reminder that the drug trade is never far away from the region. “There is an underground economy that’s fueled by drug proceeds,” said a special agent with the United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration. W. F. Strong, a professor of communication at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville and a 30-year resident of the area, called drug money the WD-40 of the Valley. “It’s the oil that makes the machinery work, in all kinds of ways that we don’t fully understand,” Professor Strong said.

• Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Liskamm questions Damaso Lopez Nunez on the witness stand in this courtroom sketch during the Brooklyn federal court trial of accused Mexican durg lord Joaquin “El Chapo” in New York City, on Jan. 24, 2019.
• He pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges and faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
• Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Victor Vazquez, who was part of a small task force that recaptured Guzman, said that for the operation to succeed, it was crucial to leave Mexican police in the dark.
• For example, the testimony of Vicente Zambada, son of Ismael Zambada an alleged partner of Guzmán.

On Wednesday, Zambada had identified Guzmán in the courtroom and told jurors he “was one of the most powerful drug traffickers in Mexico”. It is not the first time a top Mexican official has been brought down by drug trafficking allegations. Genaro García Luna, who served as secretary of public security don’t drink alcohol while taking these medications in Mexico from 2006 to 2012, was charged with three counts of cocaine trafficking conspiracy and one count of making false statements. “In the fight against corruption, we won’t give in to pressures,” he told journalists in 2007 after announcing that he was firing hundreds of federal police commanders.

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Specialist from Colombia, revealed to the jury how he built a secret communication network for Guzman—but then gave U.S. authorities key access to it in a betrayal that led to the fugitive’s capture and downfall. He dramatic drug-trafficking trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman had all the hallmarks of a television soap opera. For spilling the details, the drug traffickers rewarded Reyes Arzate with a $290,000 payment. We should start by legalising all drugs, with sin taxes sufficiently low that there’s no incentive for criminal trafficking.

A top Mexican law enforcement official was charged in Brooklyn federal court Friday with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to leak US investigation information to El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel. What he will face in a Brooklyn courtroom is a parade of government witnesses, including high-level cartel members of a kind not seen in Brooklyn since Sinaloa boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was convicted there in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison. Garcia Luna was taken into custody in Dallas in December 2019, marking another narcotics trade prosecution in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York connected to “El Chapo,” who was known for his ability to escape law enforcement custody. Guzman was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in July 2019 for running a massive drug trafficking network that had an extensive network of public officials on its payroll. Journalists and activists have for years pointed out that it is no use targeting the mobsters if you don’t go after their political protection.

There was an embarrassing episode in which he was found to have staged a police raid of kidnapping victims for a television crew. And then there was the question of his numerous luxury homes, which seemed out of reach for someone with a civil servant’s salary. A flattering 2008 profile in the New York Times Magazine described García Luna as “something of a wunderkind,” a man with a “square jaw, squat build and crew cut” who was savvy with technology and committed to cleaning up Mexico’s notoriously corrupt police. Officials claim that on at least two occasions, he accepted briefcases from cartel couriers stuffed with at least $3 million in cash. In Brownsville, Mr. Cardenas was convicted of a firearms charge and impersonating a marshal. A former Sky bar employee said business noticeably dropped in the aftermath of the incident.

Most of the incidents were in Texas, followed by California and Arizona. Packets of cocaine seized from a ship at a Philadelphia port in June 2019. In 2020, his legal team submitted an appeal complaining that he faced “inhumane conditions,” which was dismissed by a federal judge. Guzmán’s treatment, which his attorneys say is “torture” and the result of a “political vendetta,” has not changed.

This case therefore marks a serious turning point for US law enforcement. The level of corruption alleged by the witnesses goes beyond anything I’ve seen in my two decades covering Mexico’s drug war. At the very least, the trial is deeply embarrassing for Washington’s drug agents transitional and sober living house in boston, ma and politicians who schmoozed with García Luna. The two governments pledged continued cooperation against the drug cartels, especially against the scourge of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which contributed to more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021.

Mexico’s former top cop, now on trial in Brooklyn, ‘worshipped’ death cult

Reyes Arzate is already serving a federal sentence for taking part in corrupt activities on behalf of Mexican cartels — in 2018, he pleaded “no contest” in Chicago federal court to a conspiracy charge and was sentenced to 40 months in prison. The cartel, he explained, would make false cocaine bricks and swap them with police for real cocaine that had been seized. Another time, the mobsters dressed up as police, arrested a rival and then handed him over to the real officers. On one occasion, the cartel kidnapped García Luna and brought him before The Beard because he wasn’t answering the telephone. According to an indictment, the Sinaloa cartel bribed Garcia Luna throughout his time in government to ensure safe passage for its drugs, and obtain information about rival cartels and Mexican probes into its activities. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors gave jurors a video tour of a sophisticated tunnel between Mexico and an Arizona warehouse that they said was used to speed drug deliveries to America.

His trial was supposed to start this month but was delayed until January at the request of his lawyers. US authorities said the security measures were meant to prevent Guzmán from escaping or engaging in illegal activity, but even with Guzmán behind bars since his capture in January 2016, business has been booming for the Sinaloa cartel. “For years, authorities have put away these alleged leaders, but it is not serving any purpose. But if you go after politicians that are allowing this to happen, it’s a different thing,” Colón told Insider. Guzmán’s lawyer said the kingpin believed putting away the cartels’ “alleged leaders” didn’t work. The strategy is unlikely to bear successfully on the verdict, but the exposure of corruption throughout the Mexican state apparatus will be the trial’s principal legacy – whether as revelation to those surprised, or affirmation to those who knew all along. The defense, which says Guzmán is being framed, has described cooperating witnesses like Zambada as liars seeking to reduce their own sentences.

Under it, the United States provided Mexican law enforcement with billions of dollars in equipment and training, including Black Hawk helicopters and wiretap gear. García Luna also forged strong relationships with agents from across the US security apparatus. It is no big secret that Mexican police officers moonlight for drug traffickers. As far back as 2010, a state commander nicknamed “El Tyson” admitted in a confession video on national television that he was not only a high-ranking cartel member, but that he made young narco recruits cut up bodies to lose their fear of blood. El Tyson was arrested by the federal police when it was controlled by Genaro García Luna, a square-jawed intelligence agent who was a key architect of the country’s war on cartels. If convicted of international drug trafficking, conspiring to murder rivals, gun charges and money laundering, he faces a sentence of life in prison.

Egged on by his wife, Guzman dreamed of making a movie or a book about his life and took concrete steps to realize those dreams. Cifuentes, the witness who called himself Guzman’s “right hand man,” told jurors he learned of his boss’s silver screen ambitions while he was living with Guzman in hiding in 2007 and 2008 in the mountains of Culiacán, Mexico. Cifuentes testified that Guzman hired a Colombian producer to jumpstart the movie, and there was even a draft of a book tie-in to the film, according to Reuters. They escaped through a secret passageway under the bathtub, the newspaper said. Text messages between the two also showed how López called the cartel boss “daddy,” while he called her “love,” the Times reported.

Genaro Garcia Luna

Garcia Luna said the charge was “unbelievable” since he was not able to appoint officials to posts, as Zambada alleged, and such designations were made by a council. Instead, on Feb. 22, 2014, a tiny team of about 100 trusted Mexican marines set out to capture Guzman at a beach resort in Mazatlán, Mexico. But Guzman would eventually make his famous tunnel prison escape the next year. In response to Cifuentes’ testimony, Peña Nieto’s former chief of staff, Francisco Guzman, tweeted that the claims were “false, defamatory and absurd.” He said capturing and extraditing the kingpin had always been a “priority” for Peña Nieto’s administration.

“The accusations made by his lawyer are completely false and defamatory.” He is serving a life sentence without parole at ADX Florence, a Colorado prison known as the most secure “Supermax” prison in the federal system. Prosecutors said Garcia Luna, who moved to the US in 2012 and is now a Florida resident, also lied about his past criminal conduct on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel when he applied for naturalisation in 2018.

drug cartels

In his testimony, El Grande also talked about the glitter of narco wealth; how his boss The Beard had a fleet of cars, including a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, and a Rolls Royce, and pets including a white tiger and black panther. Amid such opulence, achieving justice for the deaths on both sides of the border will be an extraordinary, if impossible, challenge. While the stories of El Grande, The Beard, and El Chapo may dominate the headlines, they are far removed from the bloody conflict that has consumed Mexico — and the decaying corpses still being dug up in mass graves.

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But never before has such a high-ranking Mexican official faced a US jury on drug charges. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had put more than 55 witnesses on the stand since the trial began in mid-November to prove Guzman was guilty of trafficking billions of dollars worth of drugs into the U.S. as the leader of the Sinaloa cartel. His defense team said Guzman was being framed by the cooperating witnesses—a cast of admitted drug traffickers who have struck deals with the federal government.

Valley residents over all feel safe, and are safe, as they enjoy the year-round sunshine beneath wind-tussled palm trees in low-crime cities. McALLEN, Tex. — The former alcoholism treatment & alcohol rehab president of Mexico was accused of taking a $100 million bribe from El Chapo. A former sheriff in South Texas took far less from El Gallo — about $100,000.

Everyone wanted to be in the courtroom and see such an infamous mobster and his beauty-queen wife in the gallery. US cable networks ran regular segments on the trial’s revelations, whether it was El Chapo running through a tunnel naked to escape marines or his former lover taking the stand and crying while his wife chuckled. But in some ways, the revelations are more important in showing how corrupted Mexico’s institutions are and why the country is so violent. García Luna isn’t the first top Mexican official arrested for involvement with drug traffickers. Gen. Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo was made Mexico’s drug czar by President Ernesto Zedillo in 1996.