Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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El Chapo vs Netflix

Netflix is playing a miniseries about the drug lord of the world’s biggest drug crime organization, and he will be suing because they

“defame” his character by adding salacious details to his life story.

I kid you not:
“El Chapo” Guzman Sues Netflix, Univision over Use of His Image.

I’m under the impression that he cannot sue for royalties, but would like to know if the actor gets to wear the Barabas shirt.

In other Chapo news,
Chapo’s alleged girlfriend, Mexican congresswoman Lucero Guadalupe López, was arrested on conspiracy charges at San Diego airport as she was entering the U.S. in search of asylum.

Mexico has its bloodiest month in 20 YEARS: May sees a record number of murders as violence intensifies between gangs vying to fill space left by El Chapo

  • Mexico’s May has seen the highest increase in homicides in over 20 years
  • The first five months of 2017 have seen an increase of about 30 per cent in homicides over the same period last year
  • The violence is in part due to the weakening of El Chapo’s cartel, Sinaloa since his extradition to the US last year, meanwhile the Jalisco cartel is on the rise
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Mexico’s Attorney General: US Authorities Still Haven’t Found “A Single Dollar” of Drug Lord El Chapo

Who do you believe?

On the one hand, US Authorities Still Haven’t Found “A Single Dollar” of Drug Lord El Chapo Guzmán, says Mexico’s Attorney General Raúl Cervantes Andrade,

The ex-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, did not use the financial system, so thus far, no financial resources have been recovered, Mexican Attorney General Raúl Cervantes Andrade said Wednesday.

“To date US authorities have not found anything pertaining to the assets of el Chapo. We have realized that he did not use the financial system because we have not found any assets; they have not been able to find a single dollar,” the official said.

On the other hand, Jorge Ramos Hernández, a PAN congressman claims the assets total US$16 billion and belong to Mexico.

Clearly the guy from the PRI is not talking with the guy from the PAN.

Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz proposes the El Chapo Act, enabling 14 billion dollars worth of assets from El Chapo and other drug lords to fund the border wall.

In fact, in 2014 the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)

issued a chart identifying 288 companies involved in Guzmán’s money laundering operations that had been blacklisted by OFAC between 2007 and 2014. The Guzman-linked companies, mostly located in Mexico, covered a broad range of areas including real estate, gas stations, construction and trucking companies, and furniture stores.

As I mentioned last month, one of El Chapo’s associates agreed not to contest the forfeiture of nearly $1.4 billion in assets and cash by U.S. authorities, and in 2012 the U.S. Treasury Department put financial sanctions on El Chapo’s wife and son.

Who do you believe?

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Cruz: Pay for wall with El Chapo’s assets

Does Ted Cruz read Prairie Pundit?

Back in February PP posted,

The government is trying to seize the assets of el Chapo estimated to be $14 billion. That is nearly two-thirds of the price of the wall right there. Mexico should go along with this because it would defund the criminal insurgency that is killing their culture. It would have the potential of being a win-win deal.

Now Sen. Cruz Introduces the EL CHAPO Act. BILL RESERVES BILLIONS IN POTENTIAL ASSETS FORFEITED AS A RESULT OF THE CRIMINAL PROSECUTION OF JOAQUIN ARCHIVALDO GUZMAN LOREA “EL CHAPO” AND OTHER DRUG LORDS TO PAY FOR BORDER SECURITY

The U.S. Government is currently seeking the criminal forfeiture of more than $14 billion in drug proceeds and illicit profits from El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel who was recently extradited to the U.S. to face criminal prosecution for numerous alleged drug-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder and money laundering.

“Fourteen billion dollars will go a long way toward building a wall that will keep Americans safe and hinder the illegal flow of drugs, weapons, and individuals across our southern border,” said Sen. Cruz.

Cruz tweeted,

Not only El Chapo’s assets but also those of his associates,

One cooperator, Juan Carlos Ramirez-Abadia, or “Chupeta,” 54, was a leading supplier of cocaine to Sinaloa and BLO through Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel. He directed the production of business ledgers and was also prosecuted by Goldbarg. DEA agents helped obtain “the forfeiture of hundreds of millions of dollars” of Ramirez-Abadia’s purported billion-dollar fortune, U.S. authorities said when he was extradited in 2008 and remains under U.S. indictment.
. . .
Mayo’s son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, 41, agreed not to contest the forfeiture of nearly $1.4 billion — including cash, real estate, businesses, vehicles and other property — and cooperate with U.S. authorities while pending sentencing of 10 years to life in prison, a federal plea deal made public in 2014 in Chicago showed.

And then there are his relatives, who are living high off the hog.

Back in 2012 the U.S. Treasury Department put financial sanctions on El Chapo’s wife and son

The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that it had designated María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández and Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 26, under the U.S. Kingpin Act, which bars American citizens from dealing with them, and allows authorities to freeze their assets in the U.S.

Forbes looked into the assets amount last January (emphasis added),

The 33-page indictment against El Chapo, filed in 2016 at the U.S. Eastern District of New York, does not dissect the $14 billion. It simply says that upon conviction, the U.S. will seek forfeiture of any property or contractual rights derived from the continuing criminal enterprise, “including but not limited to at least approximately a sum of money equal to $14 billion in United States currency.”
. . .
In February 2014, OFAC issued a chart identifying 288 companies involved in Guzmán’s money laundering operations that had been blacklisted by OFAC between 2007 and 2014. The Guzman-linked companies, mostly located in Mexico, covered a broad range of areas including real estate, gas stations, construction and trucking companies, and furniture stores. Under the so-called “Kingpin Act,” American companies and individuals are prohibited from doing business with foreign company flagged by OFAC.

Gaddis said that the hard facts that back up the government’s assertion of the $14 billion figure lay in the reporting of DEA files, but they will only be accessible when they are made available to Guzman’s defense as discovery material during pre-trial proceedings.

Even half that amount would help.

Over in Mexico, a PAN congressman claims the assets  total US$161billion and belong to Mexico,

On Wednesday Congressman Jorge Ramos Hernández, from the National Action Party (PAN), claimed Guzman’s fortune amounts to at least $16 billion and must be ceded to Mexico to restore the damages caused by the trafficker’s illicit activities.

Related:
Via JC, Senator Ted Cruz proposes the El Chapo Act, enabling 14 billion dollars worth of assets from El Chapo and other drug lords to fund the border wall

UPDATE
Linked to by Silvio Canto. Thank you!

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Mexico: El Chapo does Manhattan

El País reports on The American ‘cage’ holding the world’s biggest drug lord. ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán awaits trial in solitary confinement inside a New York City correctional facility.

There is a television set in the room where Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is allowed to exercise for one hour a day, but it is never turned on: his guards, who aren’t allowed to talk to him, can’t decide what he should be allowed to watch. He spends the remaining 23 hours of each day in a small cell with a bed, a table, a chair, a lavatory and a sink. The light is turned on most of the time. The only time he sees daylight is through a small window in the passage between his cell and his exercise room.

Apparently the MCC is “worse than Guantánamo.” Play me the world’s smallest violin,

While El Chapo awaits trial, he is being kept in complete isolation, and can only talk to his lawyers from behind a glass screen. He has no contact with his wife, Emma Coronel, and she in turn is receiving no news about him. He is unaware of the increasingly bloody power struggle taking place within the Sinaloa cartel in the wake of his extradition, or that Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, with whom he wanted to make a movie about his own life, has a new television series.

But El Chapo will have seen the documents relating to his own case: that a police officer in the Mexico border city of Juárez is to give testimony about the bribes paid to release members of the Sinaloa cartel; that another witness will talk about a house used for killings, the walls of which were covered in plastic and where a special drain had to be installed for the blood to be washed down; that his stash of AK-47s was found, and that several leading Colombian cartel leaders will also be testifying.

No tunnel allowed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

RELATED:
The Successor to El Chapo: Dámaso López Núñez “El Licenciado”.

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El Chapo’s lawyers want more access

The court-appointed, taxpayer-paid federal defenders want more time with him, and raised a conflict of interest question:

Mexican Drug Lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s Lawyers Ask for More Access. Since his extradition to U.S., he’s largely been in solitary confinement in a New York prison.

Adding to the complexity of the case, the government also raised concerns about Mr. Guzmán’s legal representation by the federal defenders, saying there was a potential conflict of interest because the defenders’ office has previously represented five potential witnesses with connections to Mr. Guzmán.

The judge appointed Matthew Fishbein, a partner at Manhattan law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, to help Mr. Guzmán determine whether there is a conflict of interest.

Mexican authorities rushed El Chapo out of the country – likely before the customary negotiations that would normally take place in such a prominent case were completed (emphasis added):

Mr. Guzmán’s lawyers have indicated they may challenge the grounds for his extradition. The extradition proceedings in Mexico were not based on the charges in Brooklyn, and “it was assumed” he would be brought to California or Texas, his lawyers said. Before his removal to the U.S., neither he nor his lawyers in Mexico knew the extradition would occur, according to a court filing.

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El Chapo extradited to U.S.

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán landed in the U.S. last night. He will face six indictments throughout the U.S. for 17 counts including homicide, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

Two years ago, then-candidate Donald Trump sought FBI protection after El Chapo’s son tweeted a death threat.

Mexico Extradites Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ to U.S. Joaquín Guzmán faces six indictments across the U.S.

The Justice Department plans to put the former boss of the notorious Sinaloa cartel on trial in Brooklyn federal court, which is one of the most secure courthouses in the country, according to people familiar with the discussions. These people said the talks to finally get Mr. Guzmán on U.S. soil had accelerated in recent weeks.

Mr. Guzmán’s extradition on the last day of the Obama administration came as a surprise, as his lawyers were still fighting extradOition.

Memeorandum thread:

  Azam Ahmed / New York Times:
El Chapo, Mexican Drug Kingpin, Extradited to the U.S.

 The NYPost says that Mexico didn’t want Trump handling El Chapo extradition

Notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was extradited to the US on Thursday night as a slap in the face to Donald Trump, just hours before he’s set to take office, sources told The Post.

“Mexico wanted to get it done before the proverbial wall was built — both with bricks and bombastic diplomacy by the Trump Administration,” explained a federal law enforcement source familiar with the case.

Considering that El Chapo had embarrassed Mexican authorities by escaping from not one, but two, of the highest-security prisons in the country, one can believe the following:

According to the federal source, Mexico wanted him out of the country “as soon as possible”

El Chapo’s first court appearance is at Brooklyn’s Eastern District federal court, one of the most secure in the world.

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El Chapo: Brooklyn bound

Well I’m leavin’ you babe,
And say fare you well
Well I’m goin’ out east darlin’,
Hope you burn in hell

El Chapo to be extradited to New York

On Monday, a federal judge in Mexico gave a green light to his extradition to the US, where he faces charges for murder, kidnapping and drug smuggling.

“He will likely be extradited [to Brooklyn] in June. That’s the word,” said a source.

In 2014, El Chapo was indicted by a Brooklyn federal jury for allegedly laundering $14 billion in drug money as head of the violent Sinaloa Cartel, which feds called the world’s largest drug-trafficking organization.

His lawyer says there are nine appeals against El Chapo’s extradition orders.

Sing it, guys!

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Mexico: Mrs El Chapo didn’t know about the drugs

She must have thought he’s a computer salesman who did a lot of “corporate” travel:

‘El Chapo’s’ wife: “I don’t know that my husband traffics drugs”,

The wife of recaptured Mexican cartel leader Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera has claimed to have no knowledge that her husband is a drug trafficker.

“I am not aware that he traffics drugs. I am in love with him,” said 27-year-old Emma Coronel in an exclusive interview with Spanish-language US television station Telemundo on Sunday.

But she got herself an agent and may star in a reality show named . . . you guessed it . . . “Stand By Your Con” (emphasis added),

“Ideally, they would love for her to host and help produce it in order to make it more appealing to an international audience,” said an insider. But, “They’re trying to be sensitive to [her] relationship,” the source added, “given she’s reportedly the daughter of deceased drug kingpin Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Coronel Villareal . . . a key member of the Sinaloa cartel and one of El Chapo’s right-hand men.”

Evil enough for you?

Producers of the proposed show are also angling to reach out to members of the Charles Manson Family and Mark David Chapman’s wife, Gloria Abe. The show would air on Investigation Discovery.

Sick.

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