The trial of the famous Mexican drug leader Joaquin Gusman, known as El Chapo, will reveal a number of scandalous scandals after one of Gusman's lawyers issued an unexpected statement about the president at the first trial of his client.
At the start of the El Chapo trial, his lawyer Jeffrey Lechterman said in an opening hearing that Mexican President Enrique Benia Nieto, who took office at the end of 2012 and ends his term at the end of November, and his predecessor, Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), took bribes of hundreds of millions of dollars Sinaloa cartel, led by his client and considered among the strongest in the country.
He confirmed that the person responsible for handing over the money was Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who is being tried in absentia with El Chapo as he is still on the run.
The lawyer said his client "did not really control anything, but was a scapegoat of the Mexican government."
"Why does the Mexican government need a scapegoat because it has made a lot of money from cartel barons' bribes?"
The authorities suspect that El Mayo took charge of the Sinaloa cartel in the absence of El Chapo, who was arrested in January 2016 and is still behind bars.
"The government of Enrique Benia Nieto has pursued, arrested and extradited the criminal Joaquin Gusman Loire," Presidential spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said in a tweet on Twitter. "The statements attributed to his lawyers are pure lies and defamation."
Former President Felipe Calderon has denied charges against El Chapo's lawyer.
"The statements made by Joaquin Gusman's lawyer are totally false and irresponsible: Neither he nor the Sinaloa cartel nor any other cartel paid me any money," Calderon said in a tweet on Twitter.
El Chapo faces life imprisonment if convicted in New York for the charges against him in a trial that is expected to last more than four months.
The 61-year-old drug dealer is being tried in the United States, which he received from his own Mexican country for trying to bring 154 tons of cocaine into US territory.
If Joaquin "El Chapo" Gusman has repeatedly managed to escape in innovative ways from his prison in Mexico, this time he faces a harsh reality, as he may spend the rest of his days behind the bars of an American prison.
