El Chapo INSIDE THE TRIAL OF THE NOTORIOUS DRUG LORD
From the moment of its opening call – United States vs. Guzmán – the trial erupted like a geyser and didn’t stop for months. Among the surprises that first day was one that was worth the wait: the kingpin was offering an actual defence.
In his opening statement, Jeffrey Lichtman, Guzmán’s most vivacious lawyer, spun a tale of deep-state conspiracy that seemed to have been plucked from an airport thriller novel.
Chapo Guzmán, Lichtman assured us, was not the real leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, but was merely a convenient public scapegoat.
The real leader was none other than his long-time partner, Mayo Zambada, who, we were informed, had orchestrated Guzmán’s arrest with a corrupt cabal of Mexican presidents and crooked American cops. The myth of El Chapo, Lichtman said – the prison breaks, the border tunnels, the cinematic scenes in the Sierras – was precisely that:
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