A new chapter in the saga of betrayals and intrigues made by the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel. A lawyer from Joaquín Guzmán López, son of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmandenied this Tuesday that his client had been kidnapped Ishmael May Zambada to be delivered to the United States authorities. Jeffrey Lichtman, the only man who represented El Chapo in the trial of the century in 2018, appeared again in the court of the northern district of Illinois, in Chicago, to defend one of the heirs of the leader and he also ruled. out that his client has negotiated his surrender with American justice. “There was no agreement with the Government,” Lichtman concluded, after Guzmán López appeared before a judge in that country.
The defense of both drug traffickers, who were surprisingly arrested last Thursday in New Mexico, is experiencing a crucial week at the beginning of the legal proceedings against their clients in the United States, but they have also engaged in the exchange of new statements to try to get the best out of it in the so-called media experiment. Frank Pérez, Zambada’s lawyer, confirmed last weekend that his client was betrayed and kidnapped by Guzmán López, also known as The Güero o The Young. Although the version of an agreed surrender gained ground in the hours following the arrest, the abduction theory gained strength this week based on the testimony that US officials and representatives provided on condition of anonymity to various media.
Lichtman broke the silence to establish the location of El Chapo’s son. “He’s not charged with kidnapping,” the lawyer said with a hint of irony. “When the authorities prosecute him, then I pay attention,” he said to downplay Pérez’s statements. “When lawyers try to score points with the media with accusations like this, I ignore them , because they do not make any sense.The scandal is growing around the figure of El Mayo, who went to prison for the first time last week.
The most surprising thing about the statements of Guzmán López’s lawyer – who also represents Ovidio Guzmán, another son of El Chapo who was extradited to the United States last September – is that he went denied the agreement to surrender, a point that is at this point. it was almost accepted according to the information that the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and US authorities. “We were already told that Guzmán López had discussions with the United States Government, that he wanted to surrender; That is what the Government of the United States supports,” said the Mexican president at his morning conference. The turn in the statements of the defense is part of the strategies to face the accusations inside and outside the court.
Presented in an orange prison uniform and cuffed and handcuffed, Guzmán López pleaded not guilty to a battery of charges that include weapons possession, organized crime, money laundering and human trafficking in several substances, including fentanyl. This first statement does not prevent him from reaching a cooperation agreement with the US authorities at a more advanced stage in the legal process. The judge ordered him to remain in prison.
El Güero appears in the judicial file together with three of his brothers – Iván, Alfredo and Ovidio – who are the leaders of the group known as Los Chapitos, and with El Mayo, the partner with whom his father built a criminal empire that spans nearly 50 countries and to which another part of the Sinaloa Cartel corresponds. Lichtman has already received most of the evidence that the Prosecutor’s Office began collecting from mid-2008 until now, according to a court document obtained by this newspaper. A new hearing is scheduled for the end of September, unless there are extensions or unexpected changes.
El Mayo also pleaded not guilty in a Texas court and waived his right to a preliminary hearing, according to official documents. He is expected to appear in court again on Thursday to update his legal team on the status of the legal process. Like El Chapo’s heirs, Zambada turned to an old acquaintance. Pérez was the lawyer of Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias Vincentillo, who has already been released from prison after cooperating with US justice in the trial against Guzmán Loera. It is expected that in the coming days it will also be decided where El Mayo will face the charges against him; he has open cases in at least four jurisdictions in the United States.
Five days after the arrest, questions are multiplying in Mexico about what the arrest was like and what US security agencies know that has not yet been disclosed. The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) is conducting its own investigation to try to clarify, at least, what happened on Mexican soil. The representative of the FGR in Sonora told the press that one of the points they are trying to find out is whether the private plane in which Zambada and Guzmán López traveled left from Hermosillo, the capital of the state . It is also planned to include the statements of witnesses and the leaders’ lawyers in the file, with two versions of what happened. López Obrador promised to make the decisions known. “We need to have more information and speak the truth,” the president said.
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2024-07-31 04:34:44
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