'El Chapo' Guzmán had more airplanes than the biggest airline in Mexico

Posted by DD material from El Universal

 The air freight service operated by the Sinaloa Cartel could be considered bigger than Mexico’s largest airline, according to an investigation by the newspaper El Universal. - Aeroméxico,owns 127  

Between 2006 and 2015, military officials seized 599 airplanes and helicopters allegedly belonging to the cartel, dwarfing the fleet of 127 aircraft operated by Mexico’s largest established airline, Aeroméxico.

If a legal company, the cartel would also compete as the most lucrative airport company in the country, operating 4,771 clandestine airstrips between 500 meters and one kilometer long, nestled in the heart of the mountains in northern states.

The leader of the organization itself, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman Loera said in his interview for Rolling Stone, released in January: 'I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anyone else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines and aircraft.'.

In recent years the Sinaloa cartel has added many ultra-light aircraft to their fleet to continue moving their cargo north across the border after the larger planes have brought it to the clandestine along the border.  Ultralight aircraft that can carry more than 500 kilos of drugs and have been piloted   by senior elements of the Mexican Air Force.   according to reports by federal prosecutors in the United States. 

The route drug pilots followed is where most of the aircraft seized.   Out of the states of Sinaloa, Durango and Coahuila, in the Golden Triangle.      The Sedena provided data about where the planes are taking off and landing.

Since 2006 they have discovered 4,729 clandestine airstrips. In the last three years they were recorded 894. particularly in Badiraguato, Guadalupe y Calvo, Guachochi and Tamazula, municipalities nestled in the Sierra Madre Occidental were located.

 However, many of them concentrated on the northern border of Mexico, specifically in the northwest. In the case of Baja California they were discovered 1025. and in Sonora, 1,564

Even though there have been a lot of seizures of aircraft over the last 10 years, the drug trafficking by aircraft continues.  So far this federal administration has managed to detect 894 clandestine airstrips in the Mexican border, which have ceased to operate as such.  Guachochi Guadalupe y Calvo, Chihuahua; Tamazula, Durango and La Paz, Baja California Sur, concentrated 50.7% of all clandestine airstrips in Mexico, according to this information. 

Seizures 

According to information obtained by EL UNIVERSAL-through requests for information and resoure impugnación- from 2006 to 2015,  599 aircraft were seized that  were running drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel, 13 were helicopters and 586 airplanes.

During the period from 2006-2012 the govt. confiscated  544 aircraft, and in just  2008 the figure was 284.  Under this administration, In 2013 they secured 19 aircraft  and during 2014 were 14 and in 2015, 22 aircraft. 

Although the data from the Secretariat of National Defense remains classified regarding  specifications of seized aircraft, Management Service and Property Disposal (SAE) provided to El Universal  through the Transparency Act, a list of aircraft auctioned from 2006 to date, ie units that could not prove their legal origin.

 In total, according to the SAE 105 seized aircraft were sold at auction . The most common models: Cessna, Rockwell, Gulfstream, Piper and Beechcraft. The sale of the seized aircraft also brought the federal government, according to the institution, income of 81 million 654 thousand 707 pesos.  

Between 2010 and 2012, the SAE list showed  that the top planes seized drug trafficking,Cessna aircraft have become the main tool used because of it's characteristics us by gangland drug traffickers.

  Of the 105 aircraft, 60 were Cessna. The most popular: the model 206, having side doors and allows double loading and unloading packages faster. In addition, there are kits to expand its reserve fuel, allowing you to travel long distances, up to 1,300  kilometers.;   Another advantage for drug dealers is that the Cessna just need a stretch of land between three and four blocks for takeoff and landing, which have made the most popular aircraft in the last decade. 

Of the 105 aircraft, 60 were Cessna. The most popular: the model 206, having side doors and allows double loading and unloading packages faster. In addition, there are kits to expand its reserve fuel, allowing you to travel long distances, up to 1,300  kilometers.   Another advantage for drug dealers is that the Cessna just need a stretch of land between three and four blocks for takeoff and landing, which have made the most popular aircraft in the last decade. 

GERMAN PILOT

Jorge Arevalo Kessler was arrested in Mexico on April 7, 2008 by elements of the Federal Police in Mexico City.   


 Arevalo Kessler 44, from a wealthy family and a native of Germany, acquired Mexican nationality. In 1987 he graduated as Military Aviation Pilot Military Aviation School Number 5, in Jalisco.

That afternoon would be arrested for drug trafficking in a plane that flew from Ecuador to Toluca. The pilot was jailed in the prison of Almoloya de Juarez, where he only stayed 22 months, until February 24, 2010 left the maximum security prison to be extradited to the United States. Federal authorities Texas  had collected evidence for years, proving that Kessler was one of the senior pilots in the service of the Sinaloa Cartel.  

  Since 2010, Arévalo Kessler has remained imprisoned in a detention center in Texas. -thatr judgment like that of other high-profile- drug traffickers remains classified by the US authorities, but in August 2015 they made public some documents: transcripts of hearings in which the pilot pleaded guilty, and sentencing trial.

UNIVERSAL Documents provided by the Attorney for the Southern District of Texas show how Arevalo Kessler reached an agreement with the US government. No details of the data which provided are revealed, but the judge would offer as an argument to reduce his sentence was due to a plea agreement that included exchange of information. The transcript of his trial, unsealed on August 19, 2015, states that in January 2011 t the pilot was admitted he was carried away by greed. 

"I am praying and I just ask the Lord that I want to change and speak the truth. What I did was wrong. I was acting, blinded by greed. In trying to give a better life to my family, I did it the wrong way. I have not seen my children for three years. I made a wrong decision and I am fully aware that I did the wrong thing. I'm sorry, I really mean, what I can say?" ;   

photo from El Pinero

 The Texas prosecutors gathered evidence that proved that he belonged to an organization of senior pilots working for the Sinaloa Cartel. 

  He allied himself with Alejandro Flores Cacho and Ricardo Garcia Sanchez, aviator pilots and graduates of  Escuela Militar de Aviacion de la Secretario de Defense.  Since 2003 they trafficked drugs from South America to the cartel.

  The US Treasury Department reported that the pilots were operating narcotics trafficking by air through maintenance companies, Aviation, Transportation and Air Services, SA de CV, an aircraft hangar and maintenance located in Toluca; Aero Expreso Intercontinental, SA de CV, an air cargo company based in Mexico City. The most important is Professional Aviation Training, a flight school in Cuernavaca they used to train new pilots who participate in drug trafficking. García Sánchez Flores Cacho and remain at large. 

  During the trial, the defense argued that Kessler Arévalo his crimes were 'a mistake'. He asked the judge to consider that he was not Mexican. The document was provided to El Universal by the Attorney for the Southern District of Texas , including the statement of his attorney;

"'He's a very well educated man who reached the level of captain of the Mexican Air Force (FAM). He also trained hundreds of pilots. Also has his wife and two children waiting for him. He has had the opportunity to travel around the world. Not only is he Mexican, he is also a German citizen. He has had many privileges and good education, is also a fighter. I mean, he has flown fighter jets, commercial aircraft, small and large jets. Unfortunately, as he said, he was blinded by greed. But he is a man who has tremendous talent. He speaks three languages ​​and I think the Court should be compassionate to give him the credit he deserves. ' 

Before the arrest, the airline Emirates Airlines, Dubai, had offered him a job as an aviator pilot. The defense managed to reduce the sentence of 20 tp 11 years..  . .