The trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán continues over in Brooklyn, New York, and it continues to deliver the kind of juicy drama usually reserved for series like Narcos and Ozark.

Two weeks ago, Jesús Zambada García, the Sinaloa cartel’s chief accountant for more than 15 years, turned state witness against El Chapo, and detailed exactly how much money the cartel was bringing in during its peak, and how it smuggled the drugs across America.

Now it’s the turn of “former cartel crony-turned-government witness”, Miguel Ángel Martínez, who told jurors this week about the lavish spending habits of his former boss.

The Guardian reports:

“He had houses at every single beach,” said Martínez, formerly a close friend and top assistant. “He had ranches in every single state.”

Martínez described how the Sinaloa cartel was smuggling tons of cocaine into the US – through tunnels dug under the border, in tanker trucks with secret compartments, even in fake chili pepper cans. 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, Martínez said. On average, each plane would carry up to $10m, he said.

The cartel used stash houses to hide much of the cash, Martínez said. Samsonite suitcases stuffed with US currency also were taken to banks in Mexico, where workers were bribed to exchange it for pesos, no questions asked, he said.

Guzmán 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 Guzmán’s life, Martínez said, with the defendant’s wife listening from the gallery. “We had to pay them all,” he said.

That must have been awkward for Emma Coronel Aispuro (above) to hear, given that she has been at every day of her husband’s trial thus far.

El Chapo was also fond of popping over to Macau to gamble, and Switzerland so he could get a “cellular youth treatment”.

Ruthless druglord accused of masterminding numerous murders, but also fond of looking youthful – nice.

The fun and games and travel came to an abrupt end in a typically violent manner:

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 Guzmán, Martinez said.

They instead killed a Roman Catholic cardinal, outraging the Mexican public enough to touch off a massive manhunt for Guzmán, who was arrested before carrying out a plan to hide out in El Salvador, he said.

In order to try and undermine Martinez’s testimony, the defence said that he had such a “severe cocaine habit” that he actually damaged his nose.

Martinez then admitted that, at the peak of his addiction, he had been consuming as much as four grams a day, but had been clean for 20 years.

The trial continues.

[source:guardian]