Reuters World News - The sons of El Chapo go from Insta-fame to Most Wanted

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

With their father in prison, the sons of El Chapo have taken over the family business. The Justice Department calls the cartel run by Los Chapitos the “most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world.” Plus, closing arguments for the rape and defamation case against Donald Trump, and deadly floods in Congo.  Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, inside the global fentanyl empire built by El Chapo's sons in Mexico. Once mocked by rivals for being more concerned with their Instagram profiles, they now have bounties worth as much as $10 million. These kids essentially grew up driving Ferraris and Maserati's and owning pet tigers and things like that. Lawyers make closing arguments in E. Jean Carroll's rape and defamation suit against Donald Trump. Plus, deadly floods in the Democratic Republic of Congo, air strikes in Gaza, and a surprising new treatment for Alzheimer's. It's Tuesday, May 9th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin.

And I'm Christopher Waljester in Chicago. We start in Moscow, where President Putin is addressing the nation on Victory Day. It's an annual celebration of the World War II defeat. of Nazi Germany, but it's taken on even greater significance during the war in Ukraine as a way of boosting morale and patriotism, a massive show of military might with rows of soldiers, gun salutes and music. This year's parade comes with particularly tight security after a series of drone attacks, several regions of scaled-back events citing concerns that they could be targeted by pro-Ukrainian saboteurs. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, emergency sirens and air raid warnings

ring out over the capital Kiev as Moscow launches a fresh wave of attacks. Ukraine says 23 of 25 missiles launched were destroyed. In two villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, dead bodies are still being recovered. Devastating floods there have killed more than 400 people in the last week, and the death toll is expected to rise. Humanitarian workers have spent days recovering mud cake bodies after torrential rain triggered landslides and caused rivers to break their banks. It's one of the country's deadliest disasters in recent history.

According to the UN, warming temperatures due to climate change are increasing the intensity and frequency of Africa's rains. In other news making headlines around the world, Israel launched fresh strikes against the militant group Islamic Jihad in Gaza, with Palestinian officials saying three senior commanders have been killed. At least nine civilians also died. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is reaching out to business and financial leaders to explain the catastrophic impact of a US debt default. Her calls to CEOs come as officials from the Biden administration have been speaking to business owners about pressuring Republicans to raise the debt ceiling without conditions. The diabetes drug touted as a celebrity weight loss pill is now being considered as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's.

Several scientists interviewed by Reuters pointed to mounting research supporting the idea. Results are years away and success uncertain. President Joe Biden and top congressional leaders try today to resolve the stalemate over the debt ceiling. markets aren't holding out hope for a quick fix. Yields on short-dated T-bills jumped in European trading as investors sell off bonds that will mature around the time the US could run out of funding. Markets generally are in a cautious mood due to the debt ceiling and ahead of US inflation data out on Wednesday. On the plus side, a survey of US bankers show that credit conditions were less gloomy than expected. It's the first measure of sentiment in the banking sector since a string of

bank failures, and it helped boost the dollar. The largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world. That operation is run by the Sinaloa cartel and the cartel's leaders, known as the Chepitos, who are sons of the now imprisoned former head of the cartel, known as El Chappo. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has the sons of El Chappo firmly in his sights. The Scyons, collectively known as Los Chapitos, have revolutionized the family business, and U.S. authorities say they are flooding the country with fentanyl. For their part, Los Chapitos deny they are fentanyl kingpins.

In a rare public letter recently, they said they were being made scapegoats and are victims of persecution. Our reporter, Drazen Georgic in Mexico, worked on a Reuters investigation out today. draws there's some surprising reporting in this. Tell me about these sons. El Chapo had more than a dozen children. He was a notorious womanizer. And very early on, five of those children got involved with the drug trade. Now, their father grew up in the mountains of Senaloa, picking oranges in a farm.

And these kids essentially grew up driving Ferraris and Maseratis and owning pet tigers and things like that. So initially there were five sons, but one of them was killed very early on in a sort of hail of bullets. But the four other children, initially, they were not taking very seriously. They were on Twitter, on Instagram, showing photos of their cars, of, you know, drinking, of the jets, of partying. How did they become these new drug kingpins? Yeah, that's a good question. Essentially, when El Chapo was detained in 2014, he left the complete. of his empire to his right-hand man, this guy called the Masa Lopez. And within a year,

the Masa Lopez and El Chapo's sons managed to get him out of jail. But then El Chapo was arrested again about six months later. And this time he left this children in charge. And that created an all-out war. Within a few months, they kidnapped and killed about a dozen local police officers. According to the DEA, the US Drug Enforcement Administration, they also kidnapped a couple of federal law enforcement officers. One of them had a corkscrew screwed into his muscles and then ripped out and then chilies poured into it before Ivan, the oldest of Los Chapitos and de facto leader shot him in a head. It's really grisly stuff. There's also a lot of references to them feeding people, both alive and dead, to the pet tigers. that they kept at their ranches.

So these guys have built their empire on fentanyl, which is killing Americans every day, right? These guys were the early embraces of fentanyl. At that time, they were essentially bringing it from Chinese laboratories and then transporting it to the United States. They've sort of perfected technique. And these days, most of the fentanyl that, which is the United States, is made inside Mexico. For about a decade, Mexico had a policy known as the kingpin policy of going after cartel leaders. But the current president, Lopez Obrador, who came into power in 2018, abandoned that policy

because they just led to more violence. Every time a cartel leader is killed, his deputies fight for control, and that creates more murders. The U.S. officials say that American dies almost every eight minutes from fentanyl overdose. What the USDA agents say to me, often, though, is that we're just not getting a lot of cooperation for Mexico. Their priority is not fentanyl. These agents say Mexico's priority is bringing down the murder rate. The president disputes the assertion that Mexico is the source of fentanyl. A jury is set to deliberate a verdict in the E. Gene Carroll rape and defamation case against Donald Trump after closing arguments in the trial.

For the latest, we go to Jack Queen, who was at the courthouse. Jack, tell us what you heard. Ms. Carroll's side was really emphasizing that her account was highly corroborated by these two friends who she called immediately after the alleged assault, and then also by the testimony of two women who also alleged that Mr. Trump assaulted them in similar fashions over the course of the past couple of decades. And then from Mr. Trump's side, the argument was essentially that all of these women are lying and that this is part of nefarious plot against him, along with all of these other legal troubles that he's facing, and that this testimony can't be trusted because all of these witnesses, despise him politically and had a score to settle and that Ms. Carroll was trying to sell copies of her books by making up this claim and putting it in there. Trump didn't take the stand, but he did have some choice words for E. Jean Carroll in a deposition that was played in court.

Physically, she's not my type. And now that I've gotten indirectly to hear things about her, she wouldn't be my type in any way, shape, or form. Yes, and in truth social posts that went out. while this trial was happening, which were also subject to some litigation. But yes, Ms. Carroll's lawyers played a video deposition, footage of Mr. Trump. This was in October of 2022. He doesn't just say that she's mischaracterizing the nature of the interaction. He says that it never occurred at all, that he never bumped into her at Bergdorfs, and that she's lying. He called it ridiculous and disgusting story. And once again, he was also questioning the integrity of Ms. Carroll's legal team and claiming that this was part of a democratic plot against him. Now, this is a civil case. It's not a criminal proceeding. So what's at stake? Yeah, it's mostly the reputations of both parties here. I mean, Ms. Carroll is not asking for a specific sum of money and damages. She says that it's mostly about clearing her name and vindicating herself. And for Mr. Trump, you know, he's a very wealthy man, of course. So even if the jury did return a pretty substantial verdict against him, he probably wouldn't feel it too much.

That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. Chris and I'll be back tomorrow, while Kim, a special Eurovision episode out in the field. To get all our shows in your podcast feed, make sure to follow us on your favorite platform, or download the Reuters app so you never miss a beat.