Blog del Narco: El Chapo Conglomeration of 288 Companies Begin to Unravel

The networks and connections of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman spread across the planet. His right arm in Colombia, Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa, alias ‘JJ’, had opened three companies in Colombia which allegedly were used for money laundering.
According to a US Dept of Treasury report , ‘JJ’ was the main partner of Guzman in Colombia. He was captured on November 8, 2012 in Venezuela and extradited to America last December.

‘Chapo’ Guzman was the most wanted drug trafficker in the world, and captured in Mexico on February 22. He was the leader of the Sinaloa cartel which, through other organized crime syndicates, used Ecuador routinely for smuggling cocaine into the U.S. says the indictment issued against him in the Court of the Southern District of New York.

The drug authorities have tracked ‘El Chapo’ connections and partners in several South American countries over the past decade. The newspaper The Republic of Peru, citing a report from the Drug Enforcement Administration United States (DEA) says that Guzman was in that country in June and July 2008.

The capture of the Mexican drug lord materialized, in part, thanks to the information provided by the Ecuadorian police about their activities and his alleged links with the country, according to the Ministry of Interior.

Companies in liquidation
An office in a building on the av. Shiri and UN, north of Quito, is the official address of three of the companies. The names are Andean Lincandisa Airlines, the consulting company gestorum Ecuador Managers and importing Business Marketer
Business Team.
The National Directorate of Civil Aviation (DCA) has confirmed in writing that Lincandisa hereby granted a concession freight permit, effective until February. However, never operated.

By resolution 010/2009, the Civil Aviation Council authorized the airline to fly to Latacunga, Quito, Manta, Guayaquil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Cuba, Venezuela, USA, Panama and Mexico.

They are also authorized to use Boeing 727-200 freighters. Its main base of operations would be in the Latacunga airport.

Prosecutors and police are investigating the connections of these and other companies and their financial operations. Dozens of suspects (especially Colombians, Venezuelans, Peruvians and Mexicans) are being investigated for alleged money laundering.
The swarm of companies that “Chapo” Guzman and his partners created covers several continents. They formed a conglomerate of 288 companies, the report said , several were US based.

In July 2013, a coordinated operation between Ecuador and the U.S. led to the capture of Captain (r) Telmo Castro Army, considered one of the priority targets of the DEA .
Castro was the main facilitator of shipments of drugs for the cartel Sinaloa (in fact he was considered the leader of that organization in Ecuador) and was captured by Ecuadorian police who foiled transporting 500 kilograms of cocaine from a clandestine airstrip in the Empalme, Guayas.

Read more in Spanish at Blog del Narco

Read more Narco News Here

Published in Latino Daily News