A MEXICAN drug lord has been portrayed as the leader of a bloodthirsty cocaine smuggling operation at his trial in the US.
Opening statements in the trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman were delivered to a jury whose identities have been kept secret amid tight security in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
Assistant US attorney Adam Fels told of how Guzman got his start in the marijuana-selling business before becoming a kingpin known for using an army of hit men to wipe out any competitorsto his Sinaloa cartel. “Money. Drugs. Murder ... That is what this case is about,” Fels said.
Defence lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman sought to shift blame in his opening to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, another reputed drug trafficker in the cartel’s leadership who is still at large in Mexico.
He also suggested US law enforcement turned a blind eye to the situation.
President Enrique Pena Nieto called the sensational allegation “completely false and defamatory”.
Guzman, who has been held in solitary confinement since his extradition to the US early last year, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he amassed a multi-billion-dollar fortune smuggling tonnes drugs in a vast supply chain.
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