Kingpin Joaquin El Chapo ‘once ordered the killing of a man because he didn’t shake his hand’
DRUG kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman once had the brother of a leader of another cartel killed because he didn’t shake his hand, a court heard yesterday.
The pint-sized Mexican Sinaloa cartel chief felt disrespected after his 2004 meeting with Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, whose brother Vicente Carrillo Fuentes ran the Juarez cartel.
Ex-Sinaloa accountant Jesus “El Rey” Zambada, giving evidence at El Chapo’s trial in Brooklyn, New York, described the faux pas and its consequences.
He said: “When (Rodolfo) Chapo gave him his hand and said ‘see you later, friend’ and Rodolfo just left him standing there with his hand extended.”
Zambada recalled how his own brother – El Chapo’s right-hand man – revealed that the drug trafficker had been left fuming.
The witness told the court: “He said Chapo said he is going to kill him because he couldn’t take Rodolfo anymore.”
Fuentes was then murdered that year at Chapo’s behest - causing the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels to spectacularly fall out, the court was told.
Vicente allegedly had El Chapo’s brother, Arturo Guzman Loera, killed in retaliation in late 2004 - prompting an all-out turf war between the two Mexican cartels.
Zambada also testified that he was ordered to pay £194,000 in bribes to the Mexican military, which sought to capture El Chapo while he was on the run between 2001 and 2014.
The cash was paid and “the operation was aborted”, he added.
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As a thank-you, El Chapo invited Zambada and his wife to breakfast at his sprawling hideout in the pine trees of the remote Sinaloa mountains, the witness said.
The defendant also boasted about his obsession with guns — including his Bazooka, AK-47s and his favorite, a.38-caliber pistol engraved with his initials, Zambada claimed.
He added: “On the handle were diamonds.”
El Chapo is facing 17 charges related to running the Sinaloa cartel and faces life in jail if convicted.
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