Beyond The Horizon

The El Chapo Files: The DOJ Memorandum Of Law In Support Of Pre Trial Detention (Part 1) (7/12/24)

The United States government's memorandum supporting the pre-trial detention of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán focused on several key points highlighting the necessity of keeping him in custody without bail.Key Points from the Memorandum:

Drug Trafficking: El Chapo led the Sinaloa Cartel, a major criminal organization responsible for transporting tens of thousands of kilograms of narcotics into the United States. The cartel used sophisticated methods, including submarines, airplanes, trains with secret compartments, and underground tunnels to smuggle drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana. Evidence presented included recordings of Guzmán discussing drug trafficking and seizures of substantial quantities of drugs linked to the cartel .
Violence: The cartel maintained its power through extreme violence. Guzmán was directly involved in acts of violence, including ordering and participating in kidnappings, torture, and murders. Testimonies included accounts of brutal killings and torture carried out on Guzmán's orders, demonstrating the cartel's reliance on violence to control its territory and eliminate rivals
Sophisticated Communications: Guzmán employed an encrypted communication network to avoid detection by law enforcement. This network was set up by an IT engineer who was paid a million dollars to ensure secure communications with associates in various countries, allowing the cartel to operate efficiently and securely
Corruption: The cartel's operations were facilitated by a vast network of corrupt officials, including law enforcement, military, and politicians. These officials were bribed to protect the cartel's activities, warn about law enforcement operations, and turn a blind eye to drug trafficking and other illegal activities .
Money Laundering: Guzmán's drug trafficking operations generated billions in illicit proceeds. The memorandum detailed how the cartel laundered money through various means, including bulk cash smuggling and the use of shell companies. These activities underscored the extensive and organized nature of Guzmán's criminal enterprise .
Weapons: The cartel had access to a significant arsenal, including AK-47s, grenades, and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Guzmán himself possessed a personalized collection of weapons, highlighting the militaristic aspect of the cartel's operations .

The memorandum argued that Guzmán posed an exceptional flight risk and a danger to the community, justifying the need for his pre-trial detention without bail. His history of violence, the extensive resources at his disposal, and his ability to evade capture for years supported the government's stance that no conditions of release could reasonably assure his appearance in court or the safety of the community.

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to contact me:

bobbycapucci@protonmail.com

source:

Detention Memo (justice.gov)

Duration:: 13m
Broadcast on:: 12 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Case number 009CR-466S4BMC Preliminary Statement The government respectfully submits this Memorandum and Support of its application for a permanent order of detention for the defendant, Joaquin Archavaldo Guzman-Larea, most commonly known as El Chapo Guzman, the principal leader of the Mexico-based International Drug Trafficking Organization, known as the Sinaloa Cartel, which is the world's largest and most prolific drug trafficking organization. Guzman was extradited from Mexico on January 19th, 2017, and is scheduled to appear before the court on January 20th, 2017, for arraignment on a 17-count, fourth superseding indictment, United States vs. Joaquin Archavaldo Guzman-Larea, 009CR-616S4BMC, the indictment. For all the reasons set forth below pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 3142E, Guzman's detention pending trial is justified. The discussion. One, the charges. A grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of New York returned the indictment on May 11th, 2016. This indictment, which spans over two and a half decades of Guzman's criminal conduct, charges Guzman in count one with leading a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of Title 21, United States Codes, Section 848A, 848B, and 848C, for his role as the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. In count two, Guzman is charged with participating in an international conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana, knowing and intending that the narcotics would be illegally imported into the United States in violation of Title 21, US Code, Section 960B1A, 960B1B2, 960B1G, 960B1H, and 963. Count three and four charged Guzman with being involved in cocaine importation and distribution conspiracies in violation of Title 21, United States Codes, Section 960B1B2 and 963, and Title 21, US Code, Section 846, and 841B1A2 and 2, respectively. The indictment also charges Guzman in counts five through 15 with specific instances of international cocaine distribution, knowing and intending that the narcotics would be illegally imported into the United States in violation of Title 21, US Code, Section 959A, 959C, 960A3, and 960B1B2. Count 16 charges Guzman with the unlawful use of a firearm in furtherance of his drug trafficking crimes in violation of Title 18, US Code, Section 924C1 and A1. 924C1, A and 2, 924C1A and 3, and 924C1B2. Finally, Guzman is charged in Count 17 with participating in a money laundering conspiracy and violation of Title 18, US Code, Section 1956H. The indictment provides Guzman notice of criminal forfeiture related to all charged counts in the amount of 14 billion, which represents the illegal proceeds of his narcotics trafficking activities. If convicted on count one alone, Guzman faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment, two factual background. Guzman is the most notorious drug trafficker in the world. The evidence supporting the indictment encompasses the nearly 30 years of Guzman's drug trafficking activity that gave rise to his leadership of the Sinaloa cartel. Investigations by United States law enforcement of the Sinaloa cartel, primarily by the DEA, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI have tracked the cocaine industry from its inception through its present day buildup of cocaine and eventually other drugs in the United States. Nowhere was the devastating impact of the introduction of cocaine into the United States felt more acutely than in New York and Miami in the 1980s, which became central hubs of cocaine distribution and money laundering. Along with the proliferation of drugs into our communities, came an onslaught of violent crime. In the 1980s, the drug trade in New York and Miami was controlled by Colombian cartels, including Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel, the Cali cartel and the Norte Del Valle cartel. While the Colombians maintained the cocaine distribution infrastructure in the United States cities, they relied on Mexican drug traffickers who were long-time smugglers of marijuana and heroin into the United States to transport their cocaine shipments north from Mexico into the United States, mostly through the southwestern border of the United States. The cocaine, which had originated in the jungles of Colombia, was brought to Mexico by airplane. These air shipments often consisted of a group of seven or eight airplanes, each one carrying approximately 750 to 100,000 kilos of cocaine. Guzman quickly set himself apart from the other Mexican transporters with his efficiency transporting the drugs into the United States, including to California, Arizona and Texas and returning the drug proceeds to the Colombians in record time. This effectiveness earned him the nickname El Dorapido. As his reputation and prowess grew, Guzman was able to negotiate directly with members of the Colombian cartels for higher fees, which the Colombians were all too willing to pay. By the late 1980s, as Guzman's wealth grew so did his power within Mexico. Guzman deepened his relationship with other prominent Mexican traffickers, including Hector Palma, Juan Jose Esparagosa, Ignacio Coronel Villariel, Vicente Carillo Fuentes, the Beltran Leyva brothers and Ismail Zambaragarcia, who was known as Mayo. He vied for control of territories dominated by other cartels in an event that would foreshadow the recent violence in Mexico, resulting from cartel infighting, a new alliance between Guzman and Mayo Zambara led to a bloody battle with members of the Ariano Felix drug trafficking organization for control of the Tijuana area of Mexico. This conflict infamously led to the 1993 killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo during a barrage of gunfire at an airport in Guadalajara, Mexico. In the wake of this killing, the Mexican government undertook its first nationwide manhunt for Guzman, who, while initially evading capture by escaping to Guatemala, was eventually apprehended in 1993. Notwithstanding Guzman's subsequent incarceration at a maximum security prison in Mexico following his arrest, he continued to expand his narcotics enterprise through the assistance of his brother, who conducted business from outside the prison, while Guzman managed his operation from within. In 2001, Guzman famously escaped from prison, purportedly in a laundry cart with the assistance of prison officials whom he had corrupted. After this escape, Guzman fled to the mountains surrounding Kulea Khan, a city in his home state of Sinaloa. To thwart law enforcement efforts to recapture him, he created an army of hundreds of heavily armed bodyguards and fortified his hideaways with military-grade weapons. Guzman also established a complex communications network to allow him to speak covertly with his growing empire without law enforcement detection. This included the use of encrypted networks, multiple insulating layers of go-betweens, and ever-changing methods of communicating with his workers. Law protected from law enforcement, Guzman, began the process of not only adapting this method of operation, but also of reshaping what would become the modern Sinaloa cartel, in part through the strengthening of his alliances and partnerships with other Mexican traffickers, including his alliance with co-defendant Myles Ambada. Moreover, by the time of Guzman's 2001 escape, the Colombian drug trade was transforming itself. Guzman took advantage of these changes to fuel his dominance, as well as that of the Sinaloa cartel, not only in Mexico, but also through the entire region and beyond. One critical transformation involved the Colombian traffickers cocaine distribution businesses in the United States. In the 1980s and 90s, the Colombian cartels controlled all aspects of the narcotics trade to include street distribution in the United States, in the 2000s, with the enforcement of extradition laws in Colombia and the extraterritorial application of United States narcotics laws, the Colombians faced greater risk of prosecution for their United States-based drug trafficking activity. As a result, the Colombians started to abandon their United States distribution businesses in favor of creating partnerships with Mexican traffickers, in which the Mexicans were permitted to invest in the cocaine shipments at a wholesale price. Accordingly, the Mexican traffickers took on a more integral role in moving cocaine from Colombia to the United States. Filling a vacuum in cities in the United States left by the Colombian traffickers, the Mexicans established distribution networks across the United States, including but not limited to, in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Texas, and California. And just to interject here, this is what I mean, next man up, right? They can take down as many cells as they want, and they can take down people like El Chapo, but it's just a little hole in the bucket. This was evidenced by drug seizures traced to the Sinaloa cartel throughout the United States, including a 511 kilo cocaine seizure from a motor vehicle in Patterson, New Jersey, a 1,997 kilo seizure of cocaine from a warehouse in Queens, New York, a 1,925 kilogram seizure of cocaine from a motor vehicle and warehouse in the vicinity of Chicago, Illinois, a 1,923 kilo seizure of cocaine from a motor vehicle and warehouse in Brooklyn, and a 1,100 kilo seizure of cocaine from a motor vehicle and warehouse in El Paso, Texas. These distribution networks also supported massive money laundering efforts that delivered billions of dollars in illegal profits generated from the cocaine cells in the United States to the Mexican traffickers and their Colombian partners. These changes enabled Guzman to exponentially increase his profits to staggering levels. Accordingly, Guzman used this wealth to increase his power and the Sinaloa cartel's footprint in the drug trafficking world. Within Mexico, Guzman expanded his control of his Atlantic and Pacific ports. He also expanded his control of border towns, not only between the United States and Mexico, but also between the Mexican Guatemalan border. Guzman and members of the Sinaloa cartel infiltrated other Central American countries, including Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. Guzman's workers in these countries accepted the delivery of cocaine shipments that had been transported in tractor trailers or through other land transportation methods. Some of these countries were also used to establish clandestine landing strips that facilitated the use of small planes to transport drugs. Eventually, the Colombians and Mexicans invested in the building of semi-submersible submarines, which were capable of transporting up to six tons of cocaine for water-based trafficking. This expansion continued further south, whereas previously the Colombian cartels were the only power brokers with the sources of supply. Guzman soon embedded Sinaloa cartel members in South American-source countries, including not only Colombia, but also Ecuador and Venezuela, to negotiate directly with traffickers in the supply chain. This expansion is evidenced by a 12,000 kilo cocaine seizure from a fishing vessel in the Eastern Pacific, a 1,302 kilogram cocaine seizure from a semi-submersible submarine in the Eastern Pacific, a 373 kilo coke seizure from a small airplane in Ecuador, a 1,000 kilo cocaine seizure from a small boat off the coast of Baja, California, a 4,716 kilo cocaine seizure from a semi-submersible vehicle in the Eastern Pacific, a 19,000 kilogram cocaine seizure from a maritime vessel and route to Colombia to Mexico, and the seizure of cocaine, a plane, RPGs, and ammunition in Colombia. All right, we're gonna wrap up part one right there, and in the next episode, we're gonna pick up with part two, and that's Guzman also set out to diversify the types of drugs sold in the United States. All of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box.