El Chapo trial: Joaquín Guzman joked about arming infant daughter with AK47 in texts to wife, court hears
Trial of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzman is expected to last four months
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Your support makes all the difference.The trial of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo“ Guzman continues in Brooklyn, New York, and is expected to last into early 2019.
This is the first time a major Mexican drug lord has been tried in a US court and pleaded not guilty. The trial has become increasingly tense in recent days, as Guzman’s attorney seeks to undermine testimonies from major drug traffickers.
Guzman, 61, faces a 17 count indictment that covers nearly three decades of alleged criminal activities. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Follow updates form the trial as they happened
Agencies contributed to this report
Just before lunch, Chupeta testified that El Chapo was continuing overseeing operations of the Sinaloa cartel from behind bars.
The Colombian drug lord said Monday, “Everything continues the same… my understanding was that he continued doing the business of cocaine from prison.”
He is expected to be cross-examined by El Chapo’s attorneys this afternoon.
Chupeta is wearing a black puffer coat while El Chapo is donning a dark grey coat and a black, low V-neck t-shirt. Analysts have noted the drug lords who once made and controlled hundreds of millions of dollars annually are dressed unusually modest for the trial in Brooklyn, New York.
Testimonies have been gripping at times, while jurors have also reportedly been seen falling asleep during some of the less-consequential moments of the ongoing trial.
Court is still in session and expected to wrap up for the day in the coming hour or so, in which case we will learn more about the testimony provided Monday by Colombian drug lord, Chupeta.
To recap, here are some of the biggest takeaways from last week's hearings:
After the lunch break, Colombian drug lord Chupeta testified he had bribed his country’s police officials who worked with a unit affiliated with the US DEA called the “Sensitive Investigative Unit”.
He also revealed a series of cocaine shipments that had been sent to the Sinaloa cartel that became known as “Juanitas” — he reported the amount of cocaine for each shipment.
He also claimed his cartel had provided bribes to Colombia’s Navy in order to obtain “navigational charts where the American frigate would be in the Pacific Ocean.”
More cross-examination of Colombian drug lord Chupeta is set for tomorrow after his revealing testimony Monday afternoon.
After the lunch break, Chupeta revealed his alleged attempts to bribe and corrupt US law enforcement agents who were working on the ground in Colombia.
He testified that he had never once “directly” known of an American agent who accepted one of his bribes.
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of another day of testimony in the El Chapo trial.
Former Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, or Chupeta, will be cross-examined by the defence today.
His testimony in the afternoon yesterday involved a lot of testimony about the books he kept in relation to his dealings with El Chapo. Mostly the size of shipments.
Although, Chupeta is said to have relied on his lieutenants filings - so the defence are likely to argue that he did not know the full extent of what was involved in the operation.
Testimony about what happened to shipments travelling from Colombia to Mexico - many worth millions and millions of dollars - were a big part of yesterday's testimony - including the tale of a captain who sank a boadt containing a shipment as he had been allegedly sampling the product.
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