Emily Palmer 2/21/2019 “ El Chapo’s Sons Are Indicted on Drug Conspiracy Charge”

Mica for cartelinsider.com

Emily Palmer of the NYT (source) did an amazing job of covering Chapo’s trial in Brooklyn, NY. We first learned of Joaquín Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López.  

It really does sound like an F—K you to Chapo with little details. I covered the trial and I do remember thinking a double f—k you at the time. Cartel nerds knew about Ovidio, but nothing of accuracy with Joaquin. Enjoy the read!

El Chapo’s Sons Are Indicted on Drug Conspiracy Charge

By Emily Palmer

• Feb. 21, 2019

Just a day after Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug kingpin known as El Chapo, was convicted of all 10 counts in a drug conspiracy case in Brooklyn, the Department of Justice unsealed another indictment — against two of his younger sons.

That brief four-page indictment, announced by the department on Thursday more than a week after it was unsealed on Feb. 13, charges Joaquín Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López with one count of conspiracy to “knowingly, intentionally, and willfully” distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana for importation into the United States. The indictment entails a period from April 2008 — when their father was running the Sinaloa cartel with his partner, Ismael Zambada — to April 2018.

The two brothers have yet to be arrested and authorities believe that they are in Mexico. If they are arrested there, the United States would have to extradite them to bring them to trial, which would be held under Judge Rudolph Contreras of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

A. Eduardo Balarezo, one of El Chapo’s lawyers, questioned the timing of the indictment. “The recent indictment against Joaquín’s two sons smacks of a concerted attempt by the government to paint the entire family as being involved in criminal activity when the only evidence they have of it is based on cooperator testimony,” he said.

One of the prosecutors in Mr. Guzmán’s case, Anthony Nardozzi, of the criminal division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, has been named a lead prosecutor in the case involving El Chapo’s sons.

Mr. Nardozzi played a small role in El Chapo’s conviction, examining a handful of the 56 witnesses presented by prosecutors. Among those he questioned included Mr. Guzmán’s mistress, with whom he eluded authorities by sneaking down a tunnel under his bathtub, as well as Isaias Valdez Rios, his former bodyguard and pilot, who recounted to jurors bloody killings and tortures.

Mr. Nardozzi also interviewed several government agents, among them a supervisory special agent for Homeland Security Investigations. That agency also led the investigation against El Chapo’s two sons as part of a coordinated effort between federal, state and local enforcement agencies.

“H.S.I. special agents from H.S.I. Nogales investigated El Chapo,” said Scott Brown, a special agent in charge of Phoenix. “And it was special agents from the same office whose investigative efforts led to the indictment of two of his sons.”

The drug kingpin’s older sons, who helped take over the reins following his arrest in 2016, have both been previously charged. Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar was charged in 2014 in a case in San Diego that involved, among others, his father. Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar was charged in 2015 in Chicago. Both remain at large. Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar has been added to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s most wanted fugitives list.

Mr. Guzman’s sons were brought up frequently over the course of his 11-week trial, usually just by name and picture. But a few anecdotes stood out, among them that they helped to orchestrate El Chapo’s famous tunnel escapefrom a maximum-security prison in Almoloya, Mexico, in 2015.

It remains to be seen if and when the two younger sons will stand trial. At one time, their father had seven cases pending against him in the United States. The case against him in the Eastern District of New York, where he was tried, was filed in July 2009. It would be almost a decade before he was convicted.

Thanks for reading!

Mica for cartelinsider.com