El Chapo Trial: Chupeta, the man with two faces

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat-With material from, BB's Mica, Pacer, transcript, BB archives 

Who is Chupeta?

Colombian drug trafficker Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, aka Chupeta,  takes the witness stand as the third cooperative witness.

Arguably he is best known for the plastic surgery.

 Oh yes, the surgeries.  He has undergone four aesthetic operations that, after changing his nose, cheekbones, eye contour and chin, he is rendered unrecognizable, from his former self... except for the fingerprints.  He was left unrecognizable in a horrific way.  What remains is a grotesque mass of flesh, occupying where his handsome face once was.

I always wondered if the surgeon lived much longer after the surgery.

The 55 year old Chupeta was arrested in Brasil in 2007.

At the time of his arrest he was the most wanted drug trafficker in the world.  Overall most wanted,  second only to Osama bin Laden.

His rise to prominence in the drug world came  after an early release of his Colombian 24 year prison sentence. He began as part of the Cali Cartel but he became part of, and leader of  the Norte del Valle cartel.

Aside from trafficking, he was a brutal, violent, bloodthirsty,  vindictive murderer.

He is accused of 15 murders in the U.S. and 300 worldwide.  And children were not off limits.  He once murdered a family of 35.  He dismembered all 35.  It was the family of   Colombian drug trafficker Víctor Patiño Fómeque, Chupeta thought he was ratting to authorities.

He surrendered in Colombia in 1996 and sentenced to 24 years.  He only served 7 years when released in 2002.  He was free for 5 years when arrested in Brasil in 2007.

Chupeta’s parents, Omar Ramírez Ponce and Carmen Alicia Abadía Bastidas, were named by the U.S. treasury as part of the cartel, and placement on the organization chart has them placed directly under Chupeta.

When he was arrested at his Brasil home, he had 160 cell phones and authorities discovered 80 million dollars, painstakingly hidden in Cali, under wood and concrete.

The wealth of  Chupeta  once reached 1.8 (b) billion US the US State Department said.

DEA estimated his wealth at 1.8 Billion Dollars, he was extradited to the U.S. in 2008.

The Norte del Valle cartel emerged as Colombia's most powerful drug gang after the mid-1990s and DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) officials have said Colombian traffickers were forced to flee to countries including Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador and Argentina as a result.

This is the person whose testimony the jury is asked to believe.

Testimony of today

Face alteration

Chupeta testified about his plastic surgery: "I had changes to my face I altered the physical appearance of my face by changing my jawbone, my cheekbones, my eyes, my mouth, my ears, my nose." Said he had 3-4 surgeries. Seems strange he would not remember if it was 3 or 4.  Notice the new Michael Jackson cleft chin alteration.

Chupeta's appearance is a head turner and not in a good way. His prominent  cheek implants are massive, and his face looks unnaturally stretched. His now gray hair is slicked back, with no attempt to cover any of his face.  He's also wearing blue fabric gloves…why? No clue.

Killings

Although he is suspected of at least 300 killings, he admits between 1989 and 2007,  he killed or ordered the killing of 150 people. In 2004 he killed someone personally, shooting his victim's face.

"My Cocaine"

He says he worked with the Sinaloa cartel for 17-18 years, supplying “my cocaine” to El Chapo, El Mayo, the Beltran-Leyva brothers, Ignacio Coronel, the Zambada brothers, the Carrillo Fuentes and Héctor "El Güero" Palma.

He says he met Chapo in 1990, in Mexico City, inside a hotel lobby, they were there for an introduction meeting, and negotiations.

The deal was entered into. Chupeta would fly cocaine to airstrips in Mexico.  Once the cocaine arrived, Chapo would then traffic it across the north border to Los Angeles.  Chupeta would receive  60%. Chapo would keep 40% as border crossing fee.

Chupeta said that normally, he would pay 37% to Mexican trafficking partners. In this case of Chapo however, he presented a good sales pitch; “He said, 'I'm a lot faster,'" , [tunnels] Chupeta recalled. "'Try me and you'll see", "And your planes, cocaine and pilots will be secure.”

Chupeta says Chapo offered  trafficking routes through Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango and Nayarit.

Prosecution argument is that Chapo agreed to give Colombian cocaine partners the upper hand in a 55%-to-45%  split.

Chupeta said he happily agreed to Chapo's  request for the purest drug product possible because he wanted "a reputation for me, for my cocaine being so good."

Chupeta admitted to being surprised by how fast Chapo was in transferring the drug shipments. And at the “protection” possible because of the level of corruption in Mexico. "seizures in Mexico were scarce".  "The transport  was super-fast,  less than a week.  The other Mexican Narcos took "a month or more."

Mexico’s federal police protected shipments, also receiving the cocaine loads and conducted the transfer.  "Their corruption arrangements were effective, they were good." “That was one of the first times the Mexican drug traffickers delivered my cocaine that quickly,” Ramirez said.

That is why we called him “El Rapido”.

The first drug shipment arrived in five planes carrying 4 tons, landing on a runway in Los Mochis, Sinaloa.  Chupeta says “My planes were received by Mexican Federal Police who took the cargo in Suburban’s to the border.

It was almost a 20 year business partnership,  in which 400,000 kilos of Chupeta's cocaine was smuggled into the U.S. by Chapo.

Giving the jurors a visual of the quantities being moved, the jurors were shown just 10 kilos of cocaine,  which filled a massive dog food-sized sack.

Chupeta testifies that he bribed authorities in Colombia to destroy any criminal records naming him, while he was overseeing the Norte del Valle cartel.

The witness explained how they processed cocaine, “We added sulfuric acid, ether, acetone, potassium, gasoline, and other chemicals.”

Voice recognition was used to identify Chupeta.  This because of his altered face, they had to identify him to attain a search warrant.

Below is the transcript of Chupeta's Plea hearing and his plea agreement-click on hyperlink to enlarge

   El Chapo Trial the CHUPETA Transcript of Plea Hearing New York 2010 by Chivis Martinez on Scribd

   CHUPETA Plea Agreement by Chivis Martinez on Scribd