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U.S. Prosecutors Offer Glimpse of Case Against Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ U.S. Prosecutors Outline Case Against Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’
(about 2 hours later)
Hours after arriving by plane from Mexico, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo, was expected to appear in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday to face charges of overseeing a narcotics empire that ran for decades, spanned much of North America and was protected by an army of assassins with a military-grade arsenal who, prosecutors said, did not hesitate to kill on his behalf. As heavily armed guards and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled the streets outside, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Friday morning outlined their case against Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo, saying that he oversaw a drug empire that moved at least 200 tons of cocaine into the United States, pocketed almost $14 billion in profits and was protected by an army of assassins with a military-grade arsenal who did not hesitate to kill on his behalf.
While most Americans were turned toward Washington and the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as president, prosecutors in the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn held a news conference on Friday morning detailing the charges against Mr. Guzmán, who was flown out of Mexico on Thursday afternoon and arrived that night at MacArthur Airport on Long Island. At a late-morning news conference, Robert L. Capers, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, called the extradition of Mr. Guzmán, 59, from Mexico to New York a “milestone” in the pursuit of the notorious trafficker who achieved mythic status in his homeland as a Robin Hood-like outlaw and a serial prison escapee.
Shortly after the plane touched down, videos emerged of a heavily armed motorcade transporting Mr. Guzmán to a New York federal jail. Saying that Mr. Guzmán now faces life in prison on a sweeping charge of running a continuing criminal enterprise, Mr. Capers sought to downplay the defendant’s role as a folk hero and promised that Mr. Guzmán would not escape his American jailers.
By Friday morning, prosecutors had released a memorandum laying out their arguments for keeping Mr. Guzmán in custody, noting his vast wealth, his penchant for violence and his habit of escaping Mexican prisons — most notably, the Altiplano prison, a maximum-security facility where he lived in isolation and under 24-hour surveillance, but nonetheless escaped after his associates dug a tunnel from a home a mile away directly into his shower. “Who is Chapo Guzmán?” Mr. Capers asked, flanked by a phalanx of law-enforcement officials from local, state and federal agencies. “In short, he is a man who has known no other life than one of crime, violence, death and destruction.”
The government’s detention memo also gave an early glimpse of the case against Mr. Guzmán. In an extraordinary confluence of events, Mr. Guzmán was taken from Mexico by plane on the eve of the inauguration of Donald J. Trump and arrived on Thursday night at MacArthur Airport on Long Island where he was photographed being transported by motorcade to a New York federal jail.
It said that prosecutors planned to call several witnesses who would testify about the staggering scope of Mr. Guzmán’s criminal enterprise: including its multi-ton shipments of drugs in planes and submersibles and its numerous killings of witnesses, law enforcement agents, public officials and rival cartel members. By Friday morning, prosecutors in Brooklyn had issued a memorandum laying out their arguments for keeping Mr. Guzmán in custody, noting his vast wealth, his propensity for violence and his penchant for escaping Mexican prisons — most notably, the Altiplano prison, a maximum-security facility where he lived in isolation and under 24-hour surveillance, but nonetheless managed to flee after his associates dug a tunnel from a home a mile away directly into his shower.
Speaking at the news conference, Angel M. Melendez, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, said he had been at the airport Thursday night when Mr. Guzmán arrived. Mr. Melendez said he looked into Mr. Guzmán eyes and saw “surprise, shock and even a bit of fear” now that he was facing “American justice.”
Although officials at the gathering refused to discussed details about security measures, Mr. Melendez added: “I can assure you no tunnel will be built to his bathroom.”
Though Mr. Guzmán is facing charges in six different federal districts, Mr. Capers said that the decision had been made to prosecute him in Brooklyn, with the assistance of prosecutors in Miami, because the two offices working together could bring “the most forceful punch” to pursuing the case against the leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Mr. Capers added that the sister cases in Texas, California, Illinois and elsewhere would for the moment remain open.
In its memo issued Friday, Mr. Capers’s office said that it would seek a criminal forfeiture of $14 billion against Mr. Guzmán and announced that it planned to call dozens of witnesses who would testify about the staggering scope of Mr. Guzmán’s criminal enterprise: its multi-ton shipments of drugs in trucks, planes, yachts, fishing vessels, container ships and submersibles as well as its numerous killings of witnesses, law enforcement agents, public officials and rival cartel members.
The memo also said that the government had a vast array of physical evidence, including seized drug stashes and electronic surveillance recordings.The memo also said that the government had a vast array of physical evidence, including seized drug stashes and electronic surveillance recordings.
The 26-page memorandum of law — supplemented with photographs of mountains of seized drugs and the planes, boats and submersibles used to smuggle them — read like a history of the modern narcotics business. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Guzmán transformed the drug trade, deploying savagery, a virtual army and the corrupting force of the unchecked profits of his business.The 26-page memorandum of law — supplemented with photographs of mountains of seized drugs and the planes, boats and submersibles used to smuggle them — read like a history of the modern narcotics business. Prosecutors contend that Mr. Guzmán transformed the drug trade, deploying savagery, a virtual army and the corrupting force of the unchecked profits of his business.
The document tracks his progression from the 1980s, as a smuggler who transported Colombian cocaine to the United States and returned the profits to traffickers there so efficiently that he earned the nickname El Rápido, through the ’90s, when he began consolidating his control in Mexico.The document tracks his progression from the 1980s, as a smuggler who transported Colombian cocaine to the United States and returned the profits to traffickers there so efficiently that he earned the nickname El Rápido, through the ’90s, when he began consolidating his control in Mexico.
In the first decade of this century, Colombian traffickers faced increased enforcement of extradition laws at home, and thus greater threat of prosecution in the United States. They therefore ceded certain elements of the distribution networks in the United States to Mexican cartels, according to the memo. As Mr. Guzmán’s operations grew, prosecutors say, they became increasingly sophisticated.In the first decade of this century, Colombian traffickers faced increased enforcement of extradition laws at home, and thus greater threat of prosecution in the United States. They therefore ceded certain elements of the distribution networks in the United States to Mexican cartels, according to the memo. As Mr. Guzmán’s operations grew, prosecutors say, they became increasingly sophisticated.
Mr. Guzmán also established a complex communications network to allow him to speak covertly with his growing empire without detection by law enforcement, according to the memo. This included “the use of encrypted networks, multiple insulating layers of go-betweens and ever-changing methods of communicating with his workers.”Mr. Guzmán also established a complex communications network to allow him to speak covertly with his growing empire without detection by law enforcement, according to the memo. This included “the use of encrypted networks, multiple insulating layers of go-betweens and ever-changing methods of communicating with his workers.”
Mr. Guzmán also established distribution networks in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Texas and California and created “massive money laundering efforts that delivered billions of dollars in illegal profits generated from the cocaine sales in the United States to the Mexican traffickers and their Colombian partners,” the memo said.
“These changes,” it added, “enabled Guzmán to exponentially increase his profits to staggering levels.”
Mr. Guzmán was expected to appear for an arraignment on Friday afternoon.