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There was a moment in court this week when it felt like Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was no longer the one on trial. It came when a former Colombian drug kingpin known as Chupeta (or, Lollipop) was under cross-examination from the defense. After two days of dramatic testimony, Chupeta was getting grilled about his own criminal exploits, including murders he ordered hitmen to commit in the U.S.
“Many times I would stash it so that way the price would go up because there would be less cocaine in the streets. Then I would put my cocaine out and have bigger profits.”
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And then there’s Vicente Zambada, the son of El Chapo’s partner in the Sinaloa cartel. He struck a plea deal with the government in 2014 and has been cooperating ever since. As part of his case, he said that the DEA had a deal dating back to 2000 that allowed te Sinaloa cartel to operate and get charges against top members dismissed in exchange for providing information about rival groups. In announcing Zambada’s plea deal, the government noted he was “aware that the cartel used violence and made credible threats of violence to rival cartels and to law enforcement in Mexico.” Advertisem*nt
Defense exhibit showing Chupeta before (left) and after (right) his plastic surgeries.
Under cross-examination by El Chapo’s defense, Chupeta admitted to ordering the execution of his cartel business associate Vladimir Biegelman, who was assassinated in Brooklyn in 1993. The following year, Chupeta’s hitmen killed a couple and their adult son in Fort Lee, New Jersey, because they were suspected of informing or stealing from one of his organization’s stash houses in the area. A third woman in the New York City area later suffered the same fate.Chupeta’s most gruesome killings occurred in his native Colombia. El Chapo’s defense told the jury that the man testifying against their client was known to work with a Colombian hitman who favored a “ motosierra” — a chainsaw — as his instrument of choice for dismembering victims. Chupeta admitted that he once lured a rival cartel boss to a business meeting, where gunmen killed him and a dozen of his bodyguards, then ambushed another group of bodyguards waiting nearby.Chupeta didn’t admit to poisoning one of his lieutenants to prevent the man from being extradited to the U.S., but he did acknowledge that many secrets about his organization conveniently died with his former right-hand man. He acknowledged ordering the deaths of two female Colombian police officers who were investigating him because the cartel had killed one of their brothers. He also personally shot a man in the face at close range in 2004. Advertisem*nt
“We had control over these people. We knew where they lived, so they would be responsible if something was lost.”
Cocaine turned out to be Chupeta’s calling. He testified that he moved over 40,000 tons of the drug into the U.S. over the years, usually in concert with the Sinaloa cartel. They used a dizzying array of smuggling methods: planes, tunnels, trains, tractor trailers, fishing boats, speed boats, and cars with hidden compartments. He took credit for being the first Colombian trafficker to use a submarine to send a load of cocaine to Mexico. He even claimed that he directly influenced the price of cocaine in New York City.“Many times I would stash it so that way the price would go up because there would be less cocaine in the streets,” he said. “Then I would put my cocaine out and have bigger profits.”He seemed to pride himself on his acumen for the drug business. He always referred to his merchandise as “my cocaine” and boasted that his product was “always of optimum quality.” He testified that he started working with El Chapo in the early ‘90s “because at that time he was the best and the quickest” at crossing loads over the border into the U.S. Advertisem*nt
Prosecution exhibit showing Germán Rosero.
Another witness called to testify this week, Germán Rosero, Chupeta’s trusted lieutenant in Mexico, described being flown into the mountains to meet with El Chapo at his hideouts in Sinaloa. On one occasion, Chapo had a gold-plated AK-47 with “some precious stones encrusted in it,” Rosero said. The two discussed business and coordinated multi-ton shipments of cocaine. The deals were so good that El Chapo asked to be named godfather to one of Rosero’s children.Rosero was also in charge of smuggling drug money from Mexico to Colombia. For this task, Chapo bragged about having a small airplane “made of carbon fiber, which made it undetectable by radar,” Rosero testified. Normally, however, they used bajadores, people who would carry up to $5 million cash at a time.“We had control over these people,” Rosero said. “We knew where they lived, so they would be responsible if something was lost.”When a war broke out in 2007 between El Chapo and his partners the Beltrán-Leyva brothers, Rosero became worried about getting killed and made plans to surrender to the DEA. Thinking he was already under indictment, he traveled to Miami in June 2009 and turned himself in, only to realize he hadn’t yet been charged with a crime.Rosero was eventually indicted for conspiracy, drug smuggling, and money laundering and pleaded guilty. He’s facing a minimum of 10 years in federal prison, but under his cooperation agreement, he has yet to spend any time behind bars. He also got to keep $550,000 in cash, along with properties in Mexico and Colombia valued at over $1 million.Rosero was never directly accused of violence. But even when El Chapo’s defense focused on Chupeta’s bloody background, the prosecution did its best to convince the jury that his actions were just business as usual. Nevermind that El Chapo is on trial for similar crimes.After the defense was done grilling Chupeta about his murders, a prosecutor asked the Colombian kingpin whether violence “was an unavoidable part of leading a drug cartel.” He responded that the two go “hand in hand.”Cover image: Military officers escort alleged drug trafficker Vicente Zambada during his presentation to the media in Mexico City, on March 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)
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