The Secrets Of The Sinaloa Cartel Are Told

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

With the calm and precession of the accountant that he once was, Jesús el Rey Zambada García described this Wednesday over about three hours of testimony in the trial of Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán the financial secrets that made the Sinaloa cartel one of the most powerful criminal organizations on the planet.

Ismael el Mayo Zambada's brother, who along with El Chapo is considered one of the great drug lords in Mexico, explained the spectacular profits they made with each shipment, the methods they used to get the drug to the United States, how they bribed the authorities to facilitate their illegal business and the use of hitmen to "kill the enemies".

He also broke down the organization's internal workings, much like an investment group, in which the members of the cartel each put money to jointly finance a shipment of Colombian cocaine and then shared out the huge profits when they resold it on US soil..

It was a way to share the costs and risks of the operation, said Zambada, 57, who has been in prison since 2008, when he was arrested in a police operation in Mexico City and later extradited.

"Sharing infrastructure was giving strength to the cartel," said the witness, who was dressed in a blue prison uniform and whom Chapo did not take his eye off during his speech, which was in Spanish.

The King also assured that he “controlled” the Mexico City airport thanks to the bribes he paid and managed three warehouses in the Mexican capital from which 80 to 100 tons of drugs destined for the United States were distributed annually, often hidden in tank trucks.

A round business

A typical cartel operation, according to the witness, worked as follows. Several members of the cartel - such as Guzmán, el Mayo, Amado Carrillo Fuentes or Juan José el Azul Esparragoza - put an amount to pay drug traffickers in Colombia, such as Juan Carlos Chupeta Ramírez Abadía, a shipment of cocaine.

Cocaine was bought for rado from Mayo, El Chapo or Carrillo Fuentes. Below were sub-leaders such as Rey Zambada, the plaza chiefs who controlled a territory and were followed by workers, who were divided into hired assassins, transporters, pilots, engineers, and security guards. A part was the "government group", which was made up of the authorities paid to assist them.

Leaders shared resources - from carriers to hitmen - when an operation was carried out, and even used their contacts with the authorities to solve "legal problems" for others.

But that was ruined when El Chapo became embroiled in a violent conflict with the Beltrán-Leyva organization, other of the cartel's bosses. One of his last efforts before falling into the hands of the authorities was his brother's request in May to speak with Arturo Beltrán-Leyva about his "war" with Guzmán.