The Mexican drug kingpin known as El Chapo wanted to enlist the help of Mexico’s state oil company to move cocaine, a witness testified at his federal trial Wednesday.
According to media reports from the trial, Columbian drug lord Jorge Cifuentes told the Brooklyn federal court that El Chapo – real name Joaquin Guzman Loera – met with two Pemex officials in 2007.
El Chapo wanted to use the state company’s tanker ships to transport cocaine from Ecuador to Mexico.
The deal never ended up coming to fruition, though, and El Chapo opted to use fishing and speedboats instead, Cifuentes testified.
El Chapo rose to prominence in the late 1980’s. He is considered by many to be the most powerful drug trafficker in the world and has appeared on Forbes magazine most powerful people list. He has reportedly been called “the most ruthless, dangerous and feared man on the planet” by the US government.
After a decades long chase — including two previous arrests that ended in his escape — El Chapo was apprehended in a raid in January 2016 and was extradited to the US a year later.
He stands trial in Brooklyn federal court after being indicted on seventeen charges. His trial began in mid-November and is expected to last months.
