Has El Chapo Escaped Again 2018

(CNN)While Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman sat in a Mexican maximum security prison in 2015, his sons, a former cartel associate and fifty-fifty his wife worked together to coordinate details of his concluding escape, co-ordinate to the former acquaintance's testimony.

Damaso Lopez, 52, wearing a navy-blue prison uniform, testified Wednesday against Guzman, who he once oversaw as a prison house official but eventually went to work for. Lopez was not a prison house official during either of Guzman's escapes, in 2001 and 2015.

Guzman dramatically escaped from prison in 2015, riding on a motorcycle through a tunnel that had been dug to his jail cell at the Altiplano maximum security federal prison.

Lopez testified that he had met with Guzman's 4 sons multiple times to coordinate the earthworks of a tunnel, the buy of state most the prison and the renting of the warehouse where Guzman was taken before beingness flown to a hideout in his home state of Sinaloa.

Lopez said that Guzman's married woman, Emma Coronel, would bring messages from Guzman to the grouping later on visiting him in prison, requesting them to consummate tasks for the escape.

Coronel saturday in federal court in Brooklyn as Lopez testified confronting his quondam boss. She has non been charged with a offense and a spokesman for the U.s. Attorney's role had no comment when asked whether Coronel could face charges due to the allegations.

Jeffrey Lichtman, Guzman's attorney, said, "I'm not concerned," when asked most the allegations confronting Coronel, and a spokeswoman for her had no comment.

Guzman, 61, has pleaded not guilty. If bedevilled of international drug trafficking, conspiring to murder rivals, gun charges and money laundering, he faces a sentence of life in prison.

The inmate becomes the boss

Damaso Lopez was a high-ranking Mexican prison official when he outset met Guzman in 1999 at Puente Grande, a maximum security prison. The pair, Lopez testified, speedily became friends and did favors for each other.

Lopez was the deputy director of security and custody when he met Guzman and was responsible for internal security for the prison house. Guzman, like other prisoners, would transport Lopez signed, handwritten notes asking for items such every bit habiliment and shoes. Guzman likewise asked for a contraband cell phone.

"He was able to check his e-mail with that phone," Lopez testified.

In exchange, Lopez testified, he received help, too. Guzman allegedly gave him almost $10,000 and gave him a home worth 1.5 1000000 Mexican pesos, virtually $78,000.

"When I needed anything, I would ask and he would give it to me," Lopez testified.

Lopez resigned from his post in 2000 after the prison was beingness investigated for corruption. In 2001, Guzman escaped from Puente Grande, subconscious in a cart filled with muddied laundry.

Lopez said he was not involved in that escape, which brought Guzman more than a decade of freedom.

Lopez testified he stayed in touch on with Guzman, turning to him when he struggled to find a job later resigning from his post at the prison.

"He offered me a job," Lopez said.

Over the next 15 years, Lopez would piece of work for Guzman, who he called "mi compadre," my friend, throughout his testimony.

"In everything, my compadre was my boss," Lopez said.

When Lopez first took the stand Tuesday, he tapped his hand to his chest as he gazed over at Guzman. Guzman'south attorney, Eduardo Balarezo, asked why he did this, and Lopez said information technology was "considering I love him."

"He's a person I spent many years together and I have affection for him," Lopez said.

The pair became close afterwards Guzman's 2001 escape from prison.

"Way too close," Lopez testified.

Lopez started to work for Guzman by helping acquire properties for him, he said. He became godfather to ane of Guzman's twin girls. Later, Lopez would mine his government contacts for information about operations against Sinaloa cartel associates, and coordinate drug shipments.

Lopez testified that Guzman ordered multiple executions of dare associates, some of which were not carried out. Lopez would sometimes serve as a messenger, allegedly delivering Guzman's execution orders. Lopez too testified that he himself kidnapped multiple people, just that he'd never killed anyone.

Then on February 22, 2014, Lopez's altogether, afterwards more a decade on the run Guzman was arrested and taken to a prison at the Altiplano federal penitentiary.

Plans for the escape

Guzman and Lopez continued to stay in touch while Guzman was back in prison. Lopez testified that an attorney delivered handwritten notes from Guzman.

The notes would warn Lopez to be conscientious about who he talked to, with Guzman advising him, "No one should know where y'all sleep except you yourself." Guzman had been startled awake past government attempting to arrest him days before he was captured in February 2014.

By the end of March of that year, Lopez said he met with Guzman'southward wife, Coronel, in her habitation land of Sinaloa, where she relayed a message from Guzman in prison house: He "was thinking of taking the risk again to escape from prison" and wanted to know whether Lopez would help.

He said yep.

Lopez said he then met with Guzman's four sons -- Joaquin Jr., Alfredo, Ivan, and Ovidio -- in July 2014 to discuss planning the escape and testified that Coronel would relay letters to the group from Guzman in prison.

Guzman wanted the group to buy him weapons and an armored pickup truck, too every bit hire a warehouse almost the prison and buy a piece of land nearby.

"The piece of land was because a tunnel had to exist built," Lopez testified.

To determine exactly where the tunnel should lead, Lopez said he and Guzman's sons decided to get a watch that could let them know the exact GPS coordinates of Guzman's prison prison cell.

The grouping met again -- Guzman wanted to know what progress information technology had made.

"I dedicated myself to go what had been asked of me," Lopez said. "It wasn't something that you lot could do overnight, simply I was doing my things."

Lopez testified that he was not involved with the digging of the tunnel and that Guzman's sons were treatment it.

New details of his escape

At one point, Lopez said Guzman's sons mentioned to him that Guzman was "hearing noises where he was, those who were excavating (the tunnel) were already underneath."

The digging was happening several meters below Guzman's cell, Lopez said, and that noises were coming from the physical floor.

Guzman escaped from the prison in Altiplano on July xi, 2015.

Guzman wanted to escape on a weekend, when in that location would exist no prison officials effectually.

Lopez saw Guzman about a week after the 2015 escape. It was and then that he learned the details of the escape.

Guzman told Lopez he heard noises of the tunnel being created for months.

"The concrete had been very difficult to break through," Lopez said. "That acquired a lot of racket and it was bothering the other inmates, who complained."

Lopez never saw the tunnel himself.

One time Guzman escaped from his cell into the tunnel, a motorbike with a driver was waiting for him. That driver took him through the tunnel to a piece of state, where an ATV picked him upward and drove him to a warehouse. He was then taken to some other urban center, where a pilot and plane were waiting for him. He was flown to a hideout in the mountains of La Tuna, an area in his home state of Sinaloa.

Lopez met with Guzman after his escape in 2015 nearly eight or nine more times.

The concluding abort

Guzman was arrested, once again, in January 2016, after a raid past Mexican authorities in which five Guzman associates were killed. He was taken to a different prison in the city of Juarez.

After the arrest, Lopez said that Coronel sought him out for a meeting, where she told him her husband sent his regards and that "he was going to try to make a huge endeavor to escape again."

Lopez said that he and Coronel "were trying to figure out a way for (Guzman) to go back to Altiplano," the prison from which he had previously escaped.

"She told me that my compadre (Guzman) wanted me to showtime looking for a slice of land close to the jail," Lopez said.

Lopez testified that he told Coronel he would help but that he didn't have whatever money.

Lopez testified that another Guzman associate delivered $100,000 to him to assistance and that he was told he would exist given more money, depending on the cost of the country. But Guzman was never moved to the Altiplano prison.

Guzman was eventually extradited to the United States in early 2017.

Lopez was arrested a few months afterwards, in May, in United mexican states Metropolis and was extradited to the US in 2018. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and was sentenced to life in prison, but prosecutors may recommend a sentence reduction.

Lopez's family is in the United States "for prophylactic reasons."

Guzman's sons Alfredo and Ivan are under federal indictment on drug-related charges, and the US Treasury Section has sanctioned Ivan and Ovidio under the US Strange Narcotics Kingpin Designation Human activity for involvement in drug trafficking activities. CNN was unable to obtain information on the status of Joaquin Guzman.

CNN's Fidel Gutierrez and Daniela Cobos contributed to this report

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/24/us/el-chapo-escape-wife-sons/index.html

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