El Chapo Is Going Down. How Many Drug Lords, Politicians and Policemen Will He Take with Him? Malcolm Beith and Jan-Albert Hootsen - Newsweek
go to original October 20, 2017

El Chapo, once Mexico’s most powerful drug lord, now spends his days alone, in a wing of the Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center known as 10 South. The lights are on at least 23 hours a day, and 60-year-old Joaquin Archivaldo Guzmán Loera is allowed out of his cell for just one hour of every 24. Plexiglass separates him from his lawyers every time they meet. And the authorities permitted just one visit - from his wife and their 5-year-old twins (his sister was barred from attending on that occasion because of fears she might pass on information to his cartel). In his court appearances, Guzmán has said little more than “Yes, sir,” in response to the judge’s questions.

If he takes the stand at his trial next April and decides to say anything more than that, some powerful people will be worried. And even if he remains silent, the evidence presented in that courtroom will likely inflame tensions between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies and the two governments. Guzmán may know more about the endemic, crippling and murderous corruption in Mexico than anyone else.

How much El Chapo will reveal and what will become of his cartel are the two outstanding questions now that his fate is all but sealed, his life spent behind bars almost guaranteed. Already convicted in Mexico of drug trafficking, homicide and illegal possession and use of firearms, Guzmán now faces U.S. prosecution on similar charges. It is prudent to say “almost guaranteed,” however, because he was imprisoned in Mexico but ran his drug enterprise from inside his cell... and escaped. Twice. That’s why U.S. officials are taking extraordinary precautions to make certain he won’t break out again.

... It has been 11 years since then-President Felipe Calderón launched an all-out war on drug trafficking and corruption in Mexico. Around 100,000 people have been killed in the process, but the government appears to have achieved its primary goal: breaking down the cartels by targeting the men at the top. Guzmán is the latest of more than a dozen cartel leaders who have been caught or killed since 2006. “I’m not a big believer of [that] kingpin strategy,” says Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who was stationed in Mexico twice. “But it does have an impact.”

Read the rest at Newsweek

Related: El Chapo's Planned Contact Visits with Lawyers Nixed By Judge (Newsday)

Related: Sean Penn Thinks He'll Be Murdered Because of This El Chapo Netflix Documentary (Esquire)

Related: Kate del Castillo Releases Doc 'The Day I Met El Chapo' (The Associated Press)

Related: Sean Penn Does Not Want You to Watch Netflix’s ‘The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate Del Castillo Story’ (IndieWire)



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