Borderland Beat republished from Forbes
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Mexican drug lord Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera, imprisoned leader of one of the most powerful criminal empires, met with a confidential FBI informant in 2010, according to a federal prosecutor at the drug trial of a member of Mexico’s ruling PRI party in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire.
According to trial documents, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Feith said on October 6 that during the meeting, “which took place in the mountains of Mexico, the CHS (confidential human source) was introduced to Guzmán Loera” by defendant Jesús Manuel Gutiérrez Guzmán, El Chapo’s business representative for the U.S. Feith added that the meeting, which took place in April 2010, was not recorded and only involved the informant.
In 2011, El Chapo Guzmán, Gutiérrez Guzmán (El Chapo’s cousin), Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela, Jesús Gonzalo Palazuela Soto and Rafael Celaya Valenzuela, were indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute drugs in New Hampshire. All but El Chapo were arrested in Spain in August 2012 after FBI agents intercepted a shipment of 346 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil. Gutiérrez, Zazueta and Palazuela pleaded guilty, but Celaya, who identified himself as the cartel’s “attorney and financial planner,” decided to stand trial.
Celaya stands out from the group for his ties to the PRI, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s party. According to Mexican media, at the time of his arrest, Celaya was an active member of the PRI in the northern border state of Sonora. He tried to run for federal congressman but failed.
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During Peña Nieto’s 2012 presidential campaign, Celaya posted on Facebook pictures of himself with Peña Nieto and two now prominent PRI senators which were published in the Mexican media. While not denying ties to Celaya, the PRI said that during the presidential campaign Peña Nieto posed for thousands of photos with PRI members, but clarified that it “doesn’t imply closeness or commitment.”
During Peña Nieto’s 2012 presidential campaign, Celaya posted on Facebook pictures of himself with Peña Nieto and two now prominent PRI senators which were published in the Mexican media. While not denying ties to Celaya, the PRI said that during the presidential campaign Peña Nieto posed for thousands of photos with PRI members, but clarified that it “doesn’t imply closeness or commitment.”
On Wednesday, Celaya was convicted of conspiracy to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of cocaine, plus heroin and methamphetamines by a federal jury in New Hampshire.
While ties between organized crime and political parties, not only the PRI, are a known fact in Mexican politics, Celaya is the first PRI member to be convicted on drug charges in the U.S. in many years.
Secret video and audio recordings used during the trial showed Celaya , fellow cartel members and undercover FBI agents, who passed themselves off as members of an Italian organized crime syndicate, conspiring to expand the gang’s cocaine empire in the U.S. and into Europe.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Feith said Celaya and other members of the cartel met over the course of three years in the New Hampshire city of New Castle, as well as in Madrid, the Virgin Islands, Miami and Mexico. The conspirators and undercover agents at first discussed shipments of 1,000 kilos of cocaine with one of the cartel members promising they could deliver 20 tons.
According to court documents, Celaya’s lawyers argued that he should be acquitted because he never reached an agreement with the Sinaloa cartel to move drugs, meaning there was no conspiracy. They also argued that New Hampshire was the wrong venue for the trial.
Contrary to his co-defendants, Celaya turned down a plea deal that would have given him 10 to 20 years in prison, instead of the 10 years to life he faces after conviction. He is set to be sentenced in January.