El Chapo Trial: Gov says, "These witnesses were criminals. The government is not asking you to like them."

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat with material from alan feuer

"Do not let him escape from his responsibility, hold him accountable for his crimes, find him guilty of all the charges," the Prosecutor asked, closing her final arguments. 

U.S. attorney Goldbarg, began her closing with an overview that highlighted points she doesn’t want the jury to forget as they deliberate.

She said in her closing;  "I expect the defense to stand up and say it was somebody else, it's not him…"

As for the 14 cooperative witnesses, "Ladies and gentlemen, these witnesses were criminals. The government is not asking you to like them."

Also from Goldbarg;

"Who has diamond encrusted pistols?"  [actually, as we know many narcos have such weapons]

"Who has not one but an entire network of escape tunnels?" [escaping prison is not unlawful in Mexico]

"Who has a mile-long tunnel into his prison cell?"

"Common sense says it's a leader of the Sinaloa cartel."

Wanting to stress that Chapo was “capo” Goldbarg points to;  you can hear him being a boss "in his own words."

Funny/Silly moment; When Goldbarg told the jury, "…he was living 1000s of miles away in Colombia when the chili can route was in its heyday." Then she sets a giant can of pickled jalapeños, which Chapo used for trafficking drugs, down on top of several kilo bricks of cocaine.

Goldbarg showed some text messages to the jury between her and Chapo, Goldbarg said it was a "typical conversation for them" because they were "discussing if someone had been killed in the area." No report on Emma’s reaction.

CABO near capture

Referring to the near miss capture in Cabo Goldbarg said; Though the FBI didn't get Chapo in Cabo, they found "a treasure trove" of intel/evidence including Chapo's personal phone book that listed the 3 digit extensions that all of his closest people used on the encrypted phone system that launched the raid to begin with.

The feds tracked Chapo to the Cabo house through thee IT guy who cracked his encrypted phone network and  the text messages he himself was monitoring thru spyware, spying on his wife and mistresses.  One mistress, Agustina Acosta, was chatting about the Cabo trip with a friend.

The capture operation failed as Chapo ducked out the back and into thorn bushes.  The feds knew he was there because of a text Chapo sent Emma about seeing the police.  He also asked her to replace the size 32/30 jeans he left behind.

Alex Cifuentes, was also in Cabo at the time and testified that Chapo was calling him in a panic the whole night. Alex said that he himself went into hiding as police permeated the area, he called his mother in Colombia.

Goldbarg said the early 2000s were the heyday of the Sinaloa cartel, a time when the partners were all getting along, and massive quantities of coke were being moved. From 2003-2005, the cartel's chief supplier, Chupeta, sent them a staggering 55 tons.

That was in addition to the 22.5 tons that were seized during that period. Chupeta nicknamed these 10 separate loads the "Juanitas." Prosecutors not only had his testimony about them but also his ledgers showing expenses for the shipments down to the smallest detail.

The golden years began to crumble in 2004 when mistrust, jealousy turned to violence. Chapo went to war with his onetime partners. First, with the Carrillo Fuentes family. Then later with the Beltran Leyva Organization.

Arturo Beltran Leyva, was suspicious the DEA had tapped BLO. . His suspicions may have played a role in the Beltran Leyvas split from the cartel after Arturo's brother, Alfredo, was arrested next year. Arturo feared Chapo had ratted Alfredo out.

Update below

Drug Loads

Jorge Cifuentes rented warehouses in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil Ecuador.  He had an army captain on the payroll overseeing security.

The drugs were moved south to the warehouse then from there to coast of Ecuador. Speedboats transferred the drugs to a Sinaloa Cartel boat on the high seas.

The first load of six tons was a success but then there were two big seizures on the next two loads of 6 and 8 tons.

However, it was human error, as a red car made an illegal U-turn at a routine checkpoint in Ecuador.

Police stopped the car. A truck was with the car, and Captain Castro was in the truck.

Those seizures appear to be the end of Chapo's big loads.

Then the Cabo operation took place.

Two years later, the Mexican Marina [Navy] raided a house in Culiacan sending him fleeing, naked, with his mistress thru a tunnel hidden under a bathtub.

After Chapo escaped in Culiacan he was arrested by the Marines at a hotel in Mazatlán only to escape from prison the next year.

According to testimony, that escape from Altiplano, through the opening created inside the floor of his cell shower, was orchestrated by his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro.  We found this out during the government’s case in chief.

Chapo was arrested for the final time in 2016. At this stage, extradition proceedings began. He was flown to New York on Jan 19, 2017, the day before President Trump was inaugurated.

A gift to which president?  Obama or Trump? Mexico’s new president want to nix extraditions. 

Chapo made a grave error when he tunneled out of Altiplano Prison.  When he escaped in such high drama with the tunnel, the world had a spotlight on the event and massive corruption in Mexico.

President Enrique Pena Nieto was more than likely incensed, which gave way to the extradition.

Had he not created that embarrassment for EPN, it is likely he would still be in Mexico.  Especially with a new president having  new policies and ideas that preclude going after narcos. 

The government's closing argument may run overtime.

It is a bombardment of information recall, including all important points presented in the case in chief.

At this pace in order to complete their closing in may run over the 4:30 time.