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Tag: Sinaloa drug cartel

  • El Chapo Sentenced To Life Plus 30 Years, Ordered To Pay $12.6 Billion

    El Chapo Sentenced To Life Plus 30 Years, Ordered To Pay $12.6 Billion

    The infamous drug kingpin’s defense plans to appeal, claiming juror misconduct.

    The infamous drug kingpin known as El Chapo has been sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison and will have to hand over $12.6 billion after being found guilty of overseeing one of the biggest criminal drug operations in the world—the international Sinaloa Cartel.

    The drug lord, real name Joaquin Guzman Loera, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn by Judge Brian Cogan last Wednesday (July 17).

    Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel has been blamed for fueling the opioid epidemic in the U.S. by funneling mass amounts of heroin into the country, as well as cocaine and methamphetamine. Much of his cartel operated in Mexico, where Guzman was twice incarcerated in maximum security prisons. He escaped each time, the second through a nearly mile-long tunnel under the prison.

    Guzman remained silent during his three-month trial, but made what CNBC called a “tear-choked statement” after his sentence was handed down, claiming that he was denied a fair trial and accusing the U.S. of corruption.

    “My case was stained and you denied me a fair trial when the world was watching,” he said as his words were translated from Spanish by his lawyer. “What happened here [in] the U.S. is not better than any other corrupt country.”

    Living Conditions

    He also claimed that he was being tortured in detainment.

    “I drink unsanitary water, no air or sunlight, and the air pumped in makes my ears and throat hurt. In order to sleep, I put toilet paper in my ears. My wife had not been allowed to visit, and I can’t hug my daughters. This has been psychological, emotional and mental torture 24 hours a day.”

    Guzman’s defense plans to appeal, claiming juror misconduct. One of the jurors for this case told Vice News in February that “at least five fellow jurors violated the judge’s orders by following the case in the media during the trial.”

    A Damning Statement

    One of his cartel’s victims made a statement about how Guzman has affected her life—and nearly ended it.

    “Today I come here a miracle of God,” said Andrea Velez Fernandez. “Mr. Guzman used me as bait to kidnap someone in Ecuador. He offered one million dollars to Hells Angels to end my life. Fortunately I found out and escaped with the help of the FBI.

    Guzman will likely serve out his sentence in the ADX Florence in Colorado, one of the country’s “supermax” security prisons, due to his history of escaping. The Sinaloa Cartel has continued to operate after the kingpin’s arrest.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • El Chapo Trial Begins In New York City

    El Chapo Trial Begins In New York City

    Joaquín Guzmán is accused of running the Sinaloa drug cartel from 1989 to 2014.

    The high-security trial for one of the world’s most well-known criminals—Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán—began this week in New York City. 

    The federal trial, according to AFP, began Monday (Nov. 5) and is expected to last about four months. 

    Guzmán is accused of having led the Sinaloa cartel from 1989 to 2014. During those years, prosecutors say that the cartel was responsible for bringing 340,892 pounds of cocaine into the U.S. from Mexico, in addition to heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana—making a total of $14 billion. 

    Currently facing charges of international drug trafficking, conspiring to kill rivals, gun charges and money laundering, Guzmán was extradited from Mexico in January 2017 and has been in solitary confinement in the U.S. ever since, spending 23 hours per day in his cell.

    He is only allowed visits from his lawyer and twin daughters—even his wife, Emma Coronel, is not allowed to see him. 

    This is not the first time Guzmán has been captured. In 1992, he was arrested in Guatemala and spent more than seven years in prison, but then escaped in 2001. He was again arrested in 2014, then escaped 14 months later before being arrested most recently in January 2016. 

    While the alleged cartel leader maintains his innocence, the government has been building a case against him, which includes more than 300,000 pages of documents and at least 117,000 recordings.

    AFP reports that of the several hundred witnesses will testify, some are in witness protection programs while others are in jail. 

    The trial is expected to be the most expensive federal trial in U.S. history, costing millions of dollars. 

    Jury selection took place Monday (Nov. 5) through Wednesday. CNN reports that five men and seven women were chosen. The 12 individuals include “several immigrants, Spanish speakers and people with relatives in law enforcement.”

    Some potential jurors expressed fear over being involved in the trial.

    “What scares me is that his family could come after jurors and their families,” one of the women told the court, according to AFP. She added that she felt “nervous” and “unsafe.”

    CNN reports that other jurors were dismissed for various reasons; one juror asked for Guzmán’s autograph and another said he liked to order a sandwich called “El Chapo.”

    The 12 chosen jurors will remain anonymous and will be escorted to federal court daily by U.S. Marshals, CNN reports.  

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Meth Makes A Rural Comeback In The Shadow Of The Opioid Crisis

    Meth Makes A Rural Comeback In The Shadow Of The Opioid Crisis

    “They came in with much purer, much cheaper meth and just flooded this region of the country,” says one DEA agent.

    While the opioid epidemic has been at the forefront of headlines and national attention, another danger has also been growing in the background: the use of methamphetamine in small, rural areas of the country. 

    According to Rolling Stone, meth was previously prominent in the 1990s due to “new synthesizing methods,” which allowed individuals to use cold medicine and cleaning products to create the drug in their homes.

    Eventually, due to limiting over-the-counter access to certain medications via the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act (2006), domestic meth lab seizures dropped drastically. 

    However, this wasn’t because meth ceased to exist, Rolling Stone notes. Instead, the market reportedly shifted to Mexico, where “superlabs” managed by Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel can create a large quantity of the drug in pure form and at cheap rates. 

    Such superlabs can cook hundreds of pounds of meth daily and at 95 to 99% purity. And, according to CNN, an ounce of meth today goes for $250 to $450 in Oklahoma, versus the $1,100 it cost in 2012. Similar price drops have been reported in Virginia, Ohio and Florida.

    In addition to price drops, certain states are also seeing increases in meth-related deaths. In Oklahoma, fatal meth overdoses have doubled in just five years. 

    “They came in with much purer, much cheaper meth and just flooded this region of the country,” DEA Agent Richard Salter told CNN. 

    Oklahoma isn’t alone. In Alaska, Rolling Stone reports, meth overdoses quadrupled in the eight years between 2008 and 2016. Florida, according to the Department of Law Enforcement’s 2016 report, is seeing fatal overdoses four times higher than they were six years ago. And, according to a recent report, meth seizures have tripled within two years in Southwest Virginia.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that meth seizures have increased tenfold in the past eight years—from 8,900 pounds in 2010 to about 82,000 pounds so far this year. Despite that fact, the drug is still making its way into U.S. states like California and Arizona, then being taken to distribution areas like Atlanta.

    From there, it makes its way into smaller, rural areas. 

    Mark Woodward, spokesman with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, tells CNN that while attention is being directed to the opioid epidemic, meth is being left behind. 

    “There’s so much attention—not just in Oklahoma, but nationwide—on the opioid crisis,” Woodward said. “But our single most deadly individual drug is methamphetamine.”

    View the original article at thefix.com