The Daily - How El Chapo Ended Up in a Brooklyn Courtroom

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

Nearly two years after being extradited from Mexico, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo, is finally facing trial in a United States court. Here’s why it took so long to get to this moment. Guest: Alan Feuer, who has been covering the trial for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily Watch. Today, after months of anticipation, the trial of legendary Mexican drug lord El Chapo is finally underway. The story of why it took so long to get to this day. The story of why it took so long to get to this day. It's Monday, November 19th.

It's now about 6.15 on Tuesday, November 13th, and I am sitting outside the federal district court in Brooklyn where I just arrived for the first day of the El Chapo trial. Alan, set the scene for me on the first day of the El Chapo trial. What's the feeling like in that courtroom? There's a real electricity. We're on the eighth floor of the Brooklyn federal courthouse, and it's actually a really small room. The press is in the front row on the right,

directly across on the left, government officials. El Chapo's wife, generally dressed in black, often wearing very heavy perfume, sits directly behind the first press row. You can smell it. You can smell it. You can smell it. And there is intense security in the courtroom. There must be a dozen armed federal marshals.

The prosecution team is enormous. The defense team is smaller, but they're shrewd. Three main lawyers running the case. The moment that everybody waits for is when the door inside the well of the court opens. Three marshals go in, and out they come with El Chapo. He comes out from the back, finds his wife, Emma Coronel Espero. He gives her a brief wave. He sits. The judge arrives.

And, you know, for all of us who have been following this case for going on what is now two years, that first day was really the moment that we had been waiting for. Alan Foyer has been covering the trial for The Times. The big picture importance of this case is that we have never had a major Mexican drug kingpin in an American courtroom before. People get arrested in Mexico, get extradited to the United States, and then they plead guilty. They become cooperating witnesses, some of them. This is the first time that a major figure in the Mexican drug world has decided to gut it out and go to trial. In the U.S.?

In the U.S. And so what that means is that American prosecutors, the people in Brooklyn, people in other judicial districts around the country, have been amassing boatloads of information on Chapo and on the Sinaloa cartel for years. And this is the first time that they're essentially going to show us their hand and lay out everything that they have on this guy. And let's just go back a little bit here. What did we know about El Chapo before this trial began? El Chapo was born in the town of La Tuna, which is in rural Sinaloa state. And he grew up in the countryside, poor to the point where as a young teenager, he would go around and sell oranges and bread and cheese to the neighbors in order to feed his family.

Now, he also happened to be selling something else at that point, even at the age of 15. He was growing pot, selling it, growing poppies, and selling them. And over the years, he developed a reputation as being a shrewd, fast, and efficient smuggler. He worked first as the kind of like sneaky expert for the Colombian cartels who would get their cocaine across the United States border. And he was innovative. He was kind of revolutionary in tunnels. That was his big thing, tunnels. He was a master tunnel builder. And so he's working for the Colombians for quite some time.

Helping them get their drugs through Mexico to the U.S. That's correct. And he's so fast that his first nickname is not El Chapo, which means shorty because he's kind of a short guy. His first nickname is El Rapido. But then something happens. then something happens. The Colombian government starts to crack down on the Colombian cartels, which kind of signals the end of the Pablo Escobar Colombian period. And into that vacuum steps El Chapo. At that point, he has collected around him a loose band of criminal allies, some of them his own relatives. And not surprisingly, this prompted an enormous amount of jealousy amongst other drug traffickers in Mexico.

And Chapo starts developing very serious rivals. And so it is that jealousy that is ultimately the source of what we know today of Mexico's drug wars. For example, 1992, Chapo, in an attempt to eliminate one of these rivals that he's collected, sends an armed band of assassins into a nightclub in Puerto Vallarta, and they essentially shoot the place up. They miss their intended target. But that gunfight sets off this cycle of increasing violence. There are revenge shootouts. There are revenge, revenge shootouts. But it all kind of comes to a head and really, really rips into Mexico's collective psyche in 1993

when a high ranking official of Mexico's Roman Catholic Church, a cardinal, gets assassinated in what's ultimately said to be a drug war hit. And he's not supposed to have been the target. The real target was supposed to have been El Chapo.

Hmm. So this is the moment when the Mexican public really meets El Chapo. Yes, because in a twist of irony, the assassination gets blamed meets El Chapo. Yes, because in a twist of irony, the assassination gets blamed on El Chapo. Even though he's the target. Exactly. The Mexican government essentially undertakes a massive manhunt for El Chapo.

His face is in the papers. His face is on television. They want him badly. He escapes and flees to Guatemala, but the Guatemalan authorities ultimately capture him, send him back to Mexico. He's put on trial in Mexico. He's convicted in Mexico of drug and murder charges

in 1993, and he winds up in prison. And El Chapo's prison life, says the lawyer, was the stuff of legend. El Chapo hosted a New Year's Eve party with another cartel boss. There was a band playing, there were ladies, there was alcohol, all the best brands, Ortega told me. It was like a party in one of the best clubs in Manhattan.

He's more or less on ice in prison for the next seven, eight years. But then he breaks out of prison in 2001. And he does so hidden inside a laundry cart with the help of a correctional officer inside the prison itself.

He goes into immediate hiding because the Mexican authorities are just going bananas looking for him. The search is on in earnest for Mexico's public enemy number one in the drag trade. He's part CEO and frankly part Scarface, a billionaire gangster with a booming business right here in America. His face is everywhere. But finding him has been just about impossible. His partner, Mayo Zambada, and Mayo Zambada's brother arrange for a helicopter to swoop down into this kind of rural area where he's been immediately hiding.

Like, get off the streets, get out of sight. And the helicopter swoops down, takes Chapo. And when the coast is more or less clear, these two brothers put Chapo into a car and they drive him into the heart of Mexico City. And when they get into the city, a police squad car and a police motorcycle approach them in their car, and he starts to freak out. And one of the dudes who helped him get out says, no, no, no, no, no, Chapo, don't worry. These are our guys. They're here to protect us. And the cops escort him through Mexico City to a safe house. Wow. Nuts. They have bought off some part of the police force. It's astonishing.

El Chapo Guzman, he's like a god in Mexico, says Antonio Ortega. Nobody sees him, but he's everywhere. He's a myth. And what's happened to the Sinaloa cartel while El Chapo has been in prison? It sounds from his escape that it's made meaningful inroads inside the Mexican government. It's growing. Welcome now to gangster's paradise, where the Sinaloa cartel rules. This is one of the most dangerous spots in Mexico, a place where few outsiders go.

It's expanding internationally. Guzman's Sinaloa cartel is worth a giant $3 billion and controls nearly half of the illegal drugs funneled into the U.S. A U.S. official says Guzman's Sinaloa cartel has huge markets in Chicago, has a foothold in Los Angeles, a large network in Phoenix, and throughout the Midwest. Officials say his Sinaloa cartel is the number one supplier of heroin, cocaine and marijuana to the United States. And at the same time, the violence is expanding wildly too.

Ten months ago, this mutilated body appeared outside a Mexican police station. The message hanging over his corpse signed in El Chapo's name. Violence scenes like these, bodies stuffed in garbage bags, police executed, and journalists assassinated, are directly connected to the wrath of a Sinaloa cartel. So vicious, nearly 80,000 people have died in Mexico from drug violence. You not only have bodies stacking up literally in the streets in Mexico,

but you also have people in the United States who are dying from using these drugs. In fact, Chapo himself was named as public enemy number one by the Chicago Crime Commission. The last time they did that, it involved a guy named Al Capone. And essentially, by 2014, it is the biggest, most profitable drug cartel in Mexico. And throughout this time, what is El Chapo's relationship like to the Mexican government and to the people of Mexico? To the people of Mexico, he's a folk hero. He's a modern day Robin Hood.

Every time he outsmarts the government, the people root for him because there's always been a fraught relationship in Mexico between the people and their government whom they don't really trust. So to watch on the most public stage possible, this outlaw hero get won over on the government again and again and again, I just think that people really like that. The U.S. and Mexican authorities are hailing the capture today of the most notorious drug trafficker in the world. Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo,

was caught after eluding authorities for 13 years. And sure enough, the next time that the Mexican government does capture El Chapo, they can't even keep him in prison for 13 years. And sure enough, the next time that the Mexican government does capture El Chapo, they can't even keep him in prison for a year. And back to our breaking story, a killer kingpin whose cartel has drug runners operating right here in the U.S. is now on the loose. A manhunt happening right now for this man, El Chapo. And we're learning new details this morning about the prison escape of notorious drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. Mexican authorities have released new video that appears

to show the moment Guzman vanishing from his cell in the maximum security prison. And that time when he breaks out, he does so in a mile long tunnel that his associates dug into the shower of his cell in prison. Pay close attention to this video. Mexican authorities have just released this closed circuit video from inside the prison showing Joaquin El Chapo Guzman in the final moments before he broke out.

There's video of it in the prison, of him going down into a little tunnel hole. And then he goes around where the toilet is. And you see the dramatic moment. There it is right there. Well, Chapo disappears into the tunnel. There he is. Now he's gone. And waiting for him at the bottom of the tunnel is a motorcycle, and he just, like, rides to safety. The tunnel runs nearly a full mile from under the prison to a house. And here it is. This is the house where he just walked into and disappeared.

That one was unfathomable. The shockwaves of El Chapo's escape felt in Mexico and here in the U.S. The escape of Chapo Guzman translates into two things. More violence for Mexico and more drugs coming into the United States. coming into the United States. It takes another year before they finally re-capture him. How many re's are we at? The Mexican attorney general revealing that the drug kingpin was trying to make a movie about himself

and had his people contact producers and actors. At least one source says their movements were tracked. They capture him again in 2016, and it's really at that point that the American government's like, guys, enough's enough. And a long extradition process finally begins. We'll be right back. What role is the United States government playing at this point in trying to bring El Chapo to justice?

Well, today we are announcing in a coordinated action major drug trafficking charges against 43 individuals, including cartel leaders. He was already at that point under indictment in six different federal judicial districts in the United States. We allege that these defendants shipped multi-ton quantities of narcotics into the United States. There was Brooklyn, there was Miami, there was Chicago, there was El Paso. So the United States government wanted this guy. The indictments unsealed today outline nearly two decades of criminal activity by these cartels and their leaders here in the United States, as well as Mexico and other countries. And what were the charges for? Massive drug conspiracy. So obviously part of it was the drugs. But it was also a sense that the Mexican government was sort of unable to keep

this guy under wraps. And if Mexico couldn't do it, the United States government would. There is breaking news tonight from Mexico. Infamous drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is being extradited to face charges in the U.S. They put him, Chapo, on a Mexican police jet in Ciudad Juarez, and they start to fly him to an airport in Long Island. And Chapo actually at this point has no idea where he's going. He thinks that he's being transferred to get another Mexican prison. And it's not until the plane starts landing at MacArthur Airport in Long Island that he looks out the window, sees an unfamiliar airport, and he turns to the agents on the plane with him and he's like, where am I being taken? And one of these guys says to him in Spanish, bienvenido a New York.

Hmm. And I guess this is the inevitable question. Where is he housed? And is it secure? Well, given his prior proclivities, they place Chapo in what's called 10 South, the maximum security wing of the federal jail in lower Manhattan. and he is held under lock and key 23 hours a day under the most severe conditions of confinement that you could possibly imagine. And he is permitted out only to go to court.

And even then, when he's brought to court, the court, of course, is in Brooklyn. The jail is in Manhattan. And the quickest route from one to the other is to travel across the Brooklyn Bridge. So Chapo is traveling across the Brooklyn Bridge in a motorcade of armed vehicles and police escorts. But to be super secure,

the police shut the entire Brooklyn Bridge down every time he crosses and every time he goes back. And what kind of vehicle does he travel in? He's inside of an armored van of some sort. And he's in some sort of like coffin-like thing so that there's like two layers of security. So I know this area of Lower Manhattan and of Brooklyn. Yeah. So I know this area of Lower Manhattan and of Brooklyn. The distance is maybe a mileavan in which he's traveling and ferry him to safety. I don't know.

Anything is possible. Anything is possible. There was one time this guy escaped through a hatch that was hidden under his bathtub, and the bathtub came off the ground on a hydraulic lift, and underneath the bathtub was a maze of tunnels that led into the sewer system. So, I don't know. What has been built under the Brooklyn Bridge in the last three or four years?

That's, I guess, the question. I guess so. El Chapo on trial. The notorious drug boss faces judgment in a New York courtroom. The unprecedented security today and the secrecy surrounding the case. And so finally, after this long process,

what's now been almost two years, last Tuesday, the trial finally started. Prosecutors told the jury that he had essentially carved out a narcotics empire, running his own private army and having his own personal arsenal that included a diamond-encrusted handgun and a gold-plated AK-47. Alan, what struck you the most about the first week of this trial? What's most amazing to me is that after having just read stuff, court documents, trial transcripts, now these people are, like, stepping off the page and coming to life in the courtroom. And so, you know, the first major witness

is a guy who was one of Chapo's close allies and kind of operational chiefs for a long time. He ran Mexico City for the cartel. And he's just been a tour guide to the inner workings of the cartel and has kind of just been giving a master class in how the whole operation works. And what have you learned from him? We've learned from him everything from transportation methods to capital financing, to how the cartel is structured, to who the chief

players in the cartel are. One of the most amazing things was this guy explained in the most financially savvy terms that a $9 million investment in a 15-ton shipment of Colombian cocaine will, if the cartel manages to get it and sell it in Los Angeles, net, I want to say, what was it? $39 million. Wow. That's a $30 million profit. That's a lot of money. But if the same shipment is smuggled into and sold in Chicago, where prices are higher, it was a $48 million profit. And finally, if the same shipment made it to New York, $78 million. Sheesh, we overpay. But that's not a surprise if you live in New York. No.

And who else is slated to testify in the next few weeks? Well, that is secret. The government, because of all these security precautions, has been very tight-lipped. What we do know is that at least 16 cooperating witnesses, including the guy who's on the witness stand now, will ultimately show up. And public court documents have given us a couple of hints as to who those may be. It may be that the guy who helped him escape from prison in the laundry cart is going to show up, and a couple of his Colombian suppliers might show up and other cartel figures. But it's not 100% clear yet.

And from everything you've told us so far, what could his defense possibly be? I wondered that myself for a long time. He's kind of a defense lawyer's nightmare. of a defense lawyer's nightmare, but the defense offered a very surprising opening statement in which they claimed that Chapo was actually not the real leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel and had been framed for years by a vast conspiracy that included his former partner, crooked American drug agents, and the Mexican government itself. Wow. Yeah. So he's just a bag man who's been elevated to the top in the telling of others. He is, according to the defense, a scapegoat and nothing more.

Based on everything that you've described, it sounds like the evidence against El Chapo is significant and that a verdict is more or less guaranteed to be guilty. Correct me if I'm wrong. So with that in mind, what is this trial really about? In the 50s, when a gangster got asked, you know, if the mafia existed, they would just deny it. There's no mafia, what are you talking about, right? And then a guy named Joe Veloci, who was in the mob, got called to Congress, and he had to testify. And it was the first time that someone from inside La Cosa Nostra went on the record and said, not only does this thing exist, but here's how it works. Here's its bylaws and its culture and its chief players. And that's kind of exactly what's going on now with the Chapo trial and the cartels. This is the first public unfolding of all of what we know about these organizations that have kind of swirled around us mythically for years. And that would seem important on its own in the sense that we've long tried to understand

the drug problem and the violence problem in the U.S., in Mexico. And instead of throwing up our hands, a trial like this says, there's a reason why this happens. It has a name. It has a face. It has an organizational structure. Here's what it is. Yeah, absolutely. Look, in this man's wake, there's carnage. I mean, countless thousands, tens of thousands of people have died in Mexico over the years, you know, and maybe not just from the Sinaloa cartel, but through the larger cancer that are these cartels. So if, and presumably when,

El Chapo goes away at the end of his trial, and we assume he stays away for good, what happens to this cartel that he leaves behind? What does that do to the flow of drugs, especially into the United States? The flow continues. Sinaloa's new product is fentanyl, which is not only terribly lethal, but wildly popular. They've essentially started, you know, selling the next best thing. Opioids. Opioids, exactly. But on the other hand, don't forget

how Chapo himself rose to power. There was a kind of tidal shift in the cartel structure. The Colombians receded. Chapo emerged. And so in Chapo's absence, what's happened is that the Sinaloa cartel of his day has split into factions. His sons are running one side. There's other guys running other sides. And so who's to say with Chapo going away for good, should that happen, that a vacuum might open up and drug traffickers like nature abhor a vacuum. And into that space, a new Chapo could ultimately step in.

Alan, thank you very much Thanks for having me, Michael Here's what else you need to know today. Well, things worked out a little differently than Grace and I had hoped, but let me say I by no measure feel defeated, and that's because I've had the privilege of serving the people of Florida and our country for most of my life. On Sunday, after a manual recount of votes in Florida, Democratic Senator Bill Nielsen conceded defeat to Republican Rick Scott, giving Republicans a 52-seat majority in the Senate. It's been a rewarding journey,

as well as a very humbling experience. Heading into the recount, Nelson trailed Scott by about 12,000 votes. With the recount completed on Sunday, he still trailed by about 10,000 votes. I was not victorious in this race, but I still wish to strongly reaffirm the cause for which we fought. A public office is a public trust. A single Senate race remains uncalled in Mississippi, where Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith

and Democrat Mike Espy will compete in a runoff on November 27th after neither candidate won a majority of the vote on Election Day. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.