Emma causes courtroom drama as El Chapo trial continues

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

In opening statements, El Chapo defense attorney Jeffery Lichtman described a cooperative witness as a coke addict having a 4 gram a day cocaine habit that caused his “nose to fall off”.

The man he was speaking about, Miguel Ángel Martínez, took the stand Monday in the El Chapo trial. 

Yesterday, the court opened without the jury for some legal housekeeping.  

Emma Cell Drama: The government and Judge Cogan have gone to great measures assuring that Martinez’ likeness is not for public consumption.  And no electronic devices are to be used or in the courtroom except by attorneys.  The courtroom artist has been ordered to draw the witness with a “blank face”.

However, the wife of El Chapo, Emma Coronel seemed to defy that order yesterday.  Emma was accused of having her mobile device in the courtroom just before the secret cooperating witness was set to take the stand against her husband.

In a sidebar Cogan reprimanded the action and said, “I think defendants [attorneys] are aware, she is not supposed to have a cell in the courtroom.”

The government raised the concern that photos would be taken of the protected witness.

Update: One day after prosecutors saw in a video, caught Emma Coronel bringing a cellphone into the courthouse, they moved to sanction Chapo's lawyers, saying that last week they used a phone to help her have "impermissible contact" w/her husband

A former DEA agent took the stand to explain the processes of money laundering,

Entered into evidence, 30 year old image with Martinez' face blurred 

Martinez took the stand

Martinez was the former pilot of El Chapo, who was actually fired by Chapo for “being a bad pilot” after an aircraft malfunction.

Martinez also had the job of maintaining contact with the Colombian cartels. 

Martinez described in how El Chapo, how El Chapo built his empire from 20 employees and mid 1980s to a virtual “corporation” with 200 staffers trafficking tons of cocaine by Zodiac boats and paying millions in bribes to top officials.

He said that the Sinaloa Cartel transporting up to 800 tons of cocaine a night between Colombia and Mexico using 10 different planes.

It was a smooth operation, unless Mother Nature would make a disastrous presence.

The former pilot described how one captain was transporting cocaine cargo worth 107 million when a massive hurricane hit.

“It was one of the biggest hurricanes that ever formed in the Pacific" It capsized the boat,” he said. “We never heard from them again.

He said Guzmán was “very worried” and sent four jets in search of the lost boat, which was never found.

He testified about payoffs. Some to Guillermo González Calderoni, [at left] the former chief of PGR in Mexico City who was assassinated in 2003 [in McAllen Texas].  “Guillermo was his friend.  He was sent, on about two or three occasions, about $10 million each time.”

The money was sent on Guzmán’s planes and after the chief was paid, , González would provide intelligence,  and let the cartel operate in peace, he said.

Martinez says he escaped death twice

Once, in 1998, after his arrest, a group of his would-be killers,  stabbed him repeatedly in prison. Shortly after that murder attempt, he says, someone threw two hand grenades into his cell. Martinez says he avoided death by hiding behind the toilet bowl in his cell.

He says he last saw El Chapo in 1994 in a Mexican prison.

Filing regarding the cell phone drama-click on hyperlink below for enlargement

   El Chapo Trial Motions for Sanctions Against Defense by Chivis Martinez on Scribd