Senator Ted Cruz used the occasion of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s conviction in federal court on Tuesday to once again call for using the drug kingpin’s seized assets to fund the construction of President Trump’s promised wall along the Mexican border.
The Republican from Texas tweeted on Tuesday: ‘America’s justice system prevailed today in convicting Joaquín Guzmán Loera, aka El Chapo, on all 10 counts.
‘U.S. prosecutors are seeking $14 billion in drug profits & other assets from El Chapo which should go towards funding our wall.
‘Let's pass the EL CHAPO Act and make El Chapo pay to secure our border.’
Senator Ted Cruz (seen above at a rally in El Paso, Texas on Monday) reintroduced his bill, the EL CHAPO Act, which calls for using the assets of convicted drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border
El Chapo, 61, was convicted in a Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday of 10 counts, including drug trafficking and money laundering. He is seen right in a courtroom sketch
Cruz tweeted: ‘Let's pass the EL CHAPO Act and make El Chapo pay to secure our border’
Cruz first proposed the idea in April 2017, while El Chapo was awaiting trial in New York.
The bill's title, in addition to being the nickname of the infamous and recently extradited Joaquin Guzman, stands for Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order.
He reintroduced the bill last month. It has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
‘By leveraging any criminally forfeited assets of El Chapo and other murderous drug lords, we can offset the cost of securing our border and make meaningful progress toward delivering on the promises made to the American people,’ Cruz said in a statement last month.
In 2017, Guzman was arrested and extradited to the United States to face charges related to running a massive drug trafficking operation that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings
Cruz's proposal calls for the U.S. government to seek $14billion from Guzman specifically, while also trying to get its hands on funds from other drug lords to cover the cost of building the wall and securing the border.
The $14billion is more than twice the amount - $5.7billion - that Trump wanted from Congress for wall funding.
Lawmakers tentatively agreed Monday night to a deal that would provide nearly $1.4 billion for 55 miles of border barriers, according to congressional aides.
The huge funding measure, which combines seven spending bills into one, would run through the fiscal year, which ends on September 30.
Details might not be released until Wednesday, but the pact came in time to alleviate any threat of a second partial government shutdown this weekend.
In 2017, Guzman was arrested and extradited to the United States to face charges related to running a massive drug trafficking operation that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings.
U.S. has not found ‘one dollar’ of El Chapo’s estimated $14Billion
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is shown after his extradition to the United States on January 19, 2017 - one day before President Trump was inaugurated
Convicted drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman has continued to successfully conceal his assets, according to the Mexican government.
Guzman is believed to have amassed large sums of money throughout years of leadership over the Sinaloa Cartel prior to his extradition to the United States in January 2017, but none of it has been tracked down.
'As of today, US authorities have not found not even one dollar of El Chapo's assets,' then-Mexican Attorney General Raul Cervantes said in an interview with Televisa in May 2017.
It's estimated Guzman took in more than $14 billion while reigning over his drug cartel, based on his U.S. indictment.
The federal charges seek the forfeiture of those drug proceeds and illicit profits allegedly derived from the Sinaloa cartel's activities.
But first federal authorities have to trace and locate it, if it even actually exists in such a sum.
At least one expert on Mexico's drug cartels told Forbes that the figure of $14 billion is 'too high' and does does not take into account operating and protection expenses that Guzman incurred over his 30-year criminal career.
'The drug business may earn Mexican drug lords up to $20 billion or so a year,' the University of Miami's Bruce M. Bagley said.
'El Chapo probably makes well below a billion per year.'
Operating expenses may included things like bribes to public officials and profit sharing with the cartel, itself, Bagley said.
'…Expenses are running high, his lieutenants are increasingly greedy and disloyal. His children now control his wealth and split it among themselves. Nonetheless, I have no doubt that he is still a billionaire as of 2016,' Bagley said.
'Guesstimate: $2-$4 billion at most.'
Regardless, whether Guzman actually has $14billion at present time is more of a theoretical question.
Most seem to agree that he has a fortune, but no one can seem to find it.
'His money hasn't been found because he didn't use the financial system,' Cervantes said.
Mexico has only found minor assets belonging to Guzman, Cervantes said.
President Trump has sought at least $5.7billion from Congress to construct a wall along the border with Mexico. The image above from March 2018 shows an older section of a border structure in Calexico, California
Jurors in a Brooklyn federal court convicted him on all 10 counts that are likely to put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
He is set to be sentenced on June 25.
The 61-year-old Guzman broke out of Mexican prisons twice before he was finally recaptured and extradited to the U.S. in 2017.
Federal prosecutors put on more than 50 witnesses over three months detailing how Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel amassed billions of dollars importing tons of cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana into the U.S.
Guzman stared at the jury straight-faced as the judge read the guilty verdict.
Guzman leaned back in his chair Tuesday to catch the eye of his wife, who gave him a subtle thumbs-up, when the jury was discharged from a federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
A defense lawyer says Guzman’s conviction is ‘devastating.’
But Jeffrey Lichtman added he can ‘proudly say’ the defense ‘left it all on the battlefield.’
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan lauded the jury’s meticulous attention to detail. Cogan says it made him ‘very proud to be an American.’
Lawmakers tentatively agreed Monday night to a deal that would provide nearly $1.4 billion for 55 miles of border barriers, according to congressional aides. From left: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Majority Whip John Thune, and Senator Richard Shelby
El Chapo's lavish billionaire lifestyle included private zoo, three private jets, and trips to Switzerland for anti-aging treatment
Alfredo Guzmán, the son of El Chapo, posted this picture of his lion cub and his Bentley
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was so rich, he had a private zoo where big cats roamed.
So rich, he bought a $10 million beach house.
And so rich, he traveled to Switzerland for an anti-aging treatment.
Guzman's excesses were detailed during his trial in November by former cartel crony-turned-government witness Miguel Angel Martinez, who told jurors that a 'cocaine boom' in the early 1990s fueled the lavish spending spree.
'He had houses at every single beach,' said Martinez, formerly a close friend and top assistant.
'He had ranches in every single state.'
The drug lord also gifted employees luxury cars.
Martinez described how the Sinaloa cartel was smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States - through tunnels dug under the border, in tanker trucks with secret compartments, even in fake chili pepper cans.
El Chapo's son, Ivan Guzman, posted this huge stash of cash to his Facebook page
Ivan shared other photos showing his dad's excesses. A private plane is pictured above
'They [workers] got intoxicated because whenever you would press the kilos, it would release cocaine into the air,' Martinez told the jury in his colorful testimony.
What came back in the other direction, he said, was tens of millions of dollars in cash.
Much of it ended up in Tijuana, where Guzman would send his three private jets each month to pick it up, Martinez said.
On average, each plane would carry up to $10 million, he said.
The cartel used stash houses to hide much of the cash, Martinez said.
Samsonite suitcases stuffed with U.S. currency also were taken to Mexican banks, where workers were bribed to exchange it for pesos, no questions asked, he said.
Guzman also used his jets to fly around Mexico with armed bodyguards to visit all his homes, including an Acapulco beach house featuring the zoo with a 'little train' used to ride around and see lions, tigers and panthers, he said.
There also was a yacht docked there called 'Chapito,' he said.
Among his other expenses were 'four to five' women in Guzman's life, Martinez said with the defendant's wife listening from the gallery.
'We had to pay them all,' he said.
Over time, the kingpin who grew up in poverty developed a taste for world travel, he said.
Ivan posted this picture of a gold-plated AK-47 in his Ferrari
His entourage visited Macau to gamble and Switzerland so he could get a 'cellular youth treatment,' he said.
The good times were spoiled by a bloody turf war with a rival cartel that grew so heated it sent a team of hit men to an airport in Guadalajara to try to take out Guzman, Martinez said.
They instead killed a Roman Catholic cardinal, outraging the Mexican public enough to touch off a massive manhunt for Guzman, who was arrested before carrying out a plan to hide out in El Salvador, he said.
He has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges, with his lawyers claiming he's being framed by shady cooperators.
In opening statements, a defense attorney suggested Martinez couldn't be trusted as a witness, saying he had such a severe cocaine habit while he was working for Guzman that it damaged his nose.
He admitted that 'unfortunately' he was using up to 4 grams of coke each day at the time, but hadn't touched it for 20 years.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/02/13/ted-cruz-urges-senate-to-make-el-chapo-pay-for-trumps-border-wall/
Main photo article Senator Ted Cruz used the occasion of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s conviction in federal court on Tuesday to once again call for using the drug kingpin’s seized assets to fund the construction of President Trump’s promised wall along the Mexican border.
The Republican from Texas tweeted on Tuesday...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/13/04/9752308-6698669-image-a-44_1550033800992.jpg
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