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
It was unclear, however, if the deal ever actually took place. Cifuentes said he owned the properties that Guzman intended to sign over as collateral, but they were never transferred to the FARC representative.
The phone coversation was supposed to have happened over a secure line, but Cifuentes told the jury that the engineer he hired to install the line had failed to keep paying for the license for the encryption software - leaving the line exposed.
Cifuentes was extradited to the United States in 2013, and has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering. He has not yet been sentenced.
The defence team has sought to paint Cifuentes as an unreliable witness.
The line of questioning from the defence was on Cifuentes and his past criminal exploits.
There have been a number of redacted documents being put in front of the judge about future testimony. The latest from last week was about the testimony of Vicente Zambada.
Zambada is the son of El Mayo Zambada, El Chapo's alleged partner in the Sinaloa cartel
We are at the mid-morning break in the case - most of the morning was spent with El Chapo's legal team questioning Cifuentes.
In his testimony, Cifuentes has admitted to at least three numbers and some bribery.
The Chapo trial resumed Monday with Jorge Cifuentes being questioned by Chapo’s attorney, with the drug trafficker admitting to ordering numerous murders and bribing high-profile Mexican officials, including the former Attorney General Ignacio Morales Lechuga.
There were several tense exchanges and revealing moments throughout his testimony.
At one point, Jorge Cifuentes acknowledged he had refused to continued supplying chemicals required to make meth to the Sinaloa cartel.
He added to a previous testimony in which he said he had witnessed a meth lab explode in the mountains near Chapo’s hideout. On Monday, he revealed that he did not like how easily hooked kids became to the drug, which he suggested factored into his decision to stop supplying the cartel with the chemicals.
The courthouse became a scene of great tension Monday as Chapo’s attorney pressed drug trafficker Jorge Cifuentes about his decision not to supply chemicals to the Sinaloa cartel so they could make meth, while still continuing to provide hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US.
The lawyer reportedly shouted at Mr Cifuentes, “Is cocaine good for young people?!”
The judge presiding over the case quickly jumped in, telling the attorney, “Mr Lichtman, no yelling in the courtroom.”
Jorge Cifuentes drug trafficking and criminal history was expounded on at length during Monday’s court hearings. The drug trafficker invested $5m in an apparent money laundering scheme and bribed officials to lie about the value of his property and stolen gems.
He had reportedly told the US government during a previous statement: “Everything I’ve breathed and eaten in my life is from drug trafficking.”
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