El Chapo Trial: Chupeta testimony requested by the jury regarding "Juanitas"
Monday, February 11, 2019 8:35
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Chivis Martinez Borderland
Below find the testimony from Chupeta asked for by the jury on Thursday. Specifically they asked for testimony about “Juanitas” shipments. Within the testimony is specifics about logistics and ledgers–
Q Now, in this partnership with the Sinaloa Cartel, did you
end up sending them cocaine?
A Of course.
Q What kind of vessels did you use?
A Fishing boats.
Q Did you have a code word for these cocaine shipments?
A Correct.
Q What was that code word?
A Juanitas.
THE INTERPRETER: By interpreter, J-U-A-N-I-T-A-S.
Q How many juanitas or how many cocaine shipments known as
juanitas did you send to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A 10 juanitas.
Q When did you send the first cocaine shipment called the
juanita to the Sinaloa Cartel approximately?
A Approximately at the end of 2002.
Q When did you send the last cocaine shipment called
juanita to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Approximately January, February of 2005.
Q When did you stop sending cocaine to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A When I was arrested in 2007.
Q Now, you testified before that under this partnership the
Sinaloa Cartel were investors in your cocaine shipments.
A Correct.
Q When you first started sending these cocaine shipments called juanitas to the Sinaloa Cartel, who specifically was
investing in these cocaine shipments?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera, Mr. Mayo Zambada and his brother Ray
Zambada, Nacho Coronel, the Beltran Leyva brothers, and in the
beginning Vicente Carrillo.
Q What do you mean by in the beginning?
A Because he participated until approximately 2004.
Q What happened in 2004?
A Well, one of his brothers, El Nino, Rodolfo was murdered.
Q And what did that lead to?
A It led to problems between the people of the Federation
of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Guerreros.
Q What was the end result of those problems?
A We separated, and he stopped participating in the
shipments.
Q When you say he separated, who specifically are you
referring to?
A I’m referring to Mr. Vicente Carrillo.
Q Now, German Rosero was your top guy in Mexico; correct?
A Correct.
Q Are you aware of whether or not Mr. Rosero met with the
defendant while he was in Mexico?
A Yes.
Q Did Mr. Rosero discuss this with you personally?
A Correct.
Q What did German tell you?
A Well, Mr. German Rosero told me that he was going to the
sierras, to the mountains to speak to Mr. Guzmán Loera, that
he was going in some rickety old planes. He said I’m nervous
because these are old airplanes, I’m scared that one of these
airplanes are going to crash with me in it. And he said when
he had a meeting, well, one of the meetings he had had with
Mr. Guzmán Loera, he had told him I know who all that cocaine
that you’re bringing to Mexico and selling to us belongs to.
Q Mr. Ramirez, who said that to whom?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera told German Rosero, my lieutenant. And
in one of my lieutenant’s trips to Colombia, he explained this
to me.
Q What is it that the defendant told German Rosero at that
meeting?
A I know who all that cocaine, all those drugs you’re
selling us belongs to, all the drugs that are coming from
Colombia through you, I worked with him for a long time, with
that man. I send my respects. He was always a straight
shooter. And that’s basically what German told me.
Q When the defendant told German that he knew who the
cocaine was coming from, what did you understand that to mean?
A So it meant that the defendant knew that cocaine that was
arriving to them, to the Sinaloa Cartel, to Mr. Guzmán Loera,
and to the others was mine, that I was the one sending it to
them and giving it to them in high seas.
Q Did you say anything to German Rosero about this?
A Yes.
Q What did you tell German Rosero?
A I said: Please, act like you didn’t hear anything.
Please don’t mention my name at all. You keep showing your
face and keep saying that’s your cocaine and don’t name me.
Q Now, did you eventually send out a cocaine shipment named
Juanita 1?
A Correct.
Q Do you recall how many kilos of cocaine were on that
shipment?
A Approximately 3,600, 3,800 kilos of cocaine.
Q Was this the average size of a cocaine shipment you were
sending around this time?
A I started with that amount of kilos in that shipment.
Q Was that small or large compared to the shipments you
would later send?
A It was the smallest one because we went back to the
fishing boats. I started that way to test if everything was
going to go well, if it was going to work.
Q Did that cocaine shipment make it successfully to Mexico?
A Correct.
Q How do you know this?
A Through my lieutenants and because the money returned to
Colombia from the cocaine I had sold him at high seas.
Q And who were the investors in this initial Juanita 1 one shipment?
A Mr. Guzman, Mr. Nacho Coronel, the Beltran Leyva
brothers, Mayo Zambada, his brother, and Viceroy who is
Vicente Carrillo.
Q Do you remember what percentage the Sinaloa Cartel
invested in this specific cocaine shipment?
A I don’t remember exactly how much.
Q And where did you hand off this initial Juanita 1 cocaine
shipment to the Mexicans?
A High seas, it was delivered to them.
Q Do you know who it was delivered to?
A Yes.
Q Who was it delivered to?
A Nacho Coronel.
Q So what role did Nacho Coronel play in Juanita 1?
A He came up with the logistics for receiving my ship at
high seas with the cocaine and he also gave German the money
for the Sinaloa Cartel people’s share before I sent out the
shipment.
Q Mr. Ramirez, you’ve used that term a couple of times, the
logistics for receiving the shipment. Can you explain what
you mean by that?
A The logistics mean, means what, I mean, which member of
the Federation of the Sinaloa Cartel was going to send the
fishing boat to meet up with our boat to transfer the coke on
to the Sinaloa Cartel people’s boat and to offload it onto the
Mexican beach.
Q So, if Nacho Coronel was responsible for receiving the
cocaine shipment of Juanita 1, does that mean that he was the
sole owner of those kilos of cocaine?
A No. No. He was just doing the logistics of receiving
the boat.
Q For the Juanitas that you ended up sending to the Sinaloa
cartel, was Nacho Coronel the only one that handled the
logistics of receiving your cocaine at the high seas?
A No.
Q Who else received — who else handled the logistics for
receiving these cocaine shipments?
A The Beltran Leyva brothers and Mr. Guzman Loera.
Q Did you end up sending a cocaine shipment titled
Juanita 2?
A Correct, yes.
Q When did you start planning Juanita 2 in comparison to
the when Juanita one left?
A Once Juanita Uno made it successfully to Mexico and the
cocaine had been received by them, by the Sinaloa Cartel’s
people, it was transported by them to the United States. It
was sold and then the money came back and was delivered to me,
delivered to my people in Mexico City. Then I immediately
began the planning of Juanita Dos, Juanita 2.
Q How long did it take you to plan to send out Juanita 2?
A The planning would usually take two to three weeks,
sometimes four.
Q Can you describe briefly what would happen in those two
to four weeks that you were planning the cocaine shipment?
A Correct. I had to coordinate the sending of my cocaine
to the Colombian coast from where the shipment would leave.
We had to coordinate who was going to protect the shipment of
cocaine in the Colombian coast, whether it be the guerillas or
the paramilitaries.
We had to make, coordinate corruption arrangements
with the Colombian navy to be able to know that way also where
the American frigates would be located so that we could figure
a route for our cocaine, our shipment of cocaine to avoid
meeting up with them and to avoid the boat being seized.
Q Did you have to purchase anything to put on these boats?
A Correct. I had, I had to buy the food for the crew of
the boat, fuel for the boat, parts for the ship in case the
ship suffered an inconvenience, and ice to put in the freezer
in the ship where supposedly the catch would be.
Q What catch are you talking about?
A I’m speaking of the catch that the boat would pretend to
be taking by using the nets as it was going up the Pacific
Ocean to meet up with the Mexican boat.
Q Once the cocaine shipment was ready to leave from Colombia, approximately how long would it take to get to the
meeting point with the Sinaloa Cartel on the high seas?
A It could be two, three, four weeks, depending on if there
was nothing unexpected that came up, and also the sea
currents.
Q What role would you play during those two, three or
four weeks that the cocaine was on its way to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A I would be in permanent contact with my lieutenant in
Colombia who in turn were in permanent contact with Mr. German
Rosero in Mexico and I would monitor how things were going,
you know, on the boat until my boat met up with the Mexican
boat. The cocaine was transferred and then it would be
offloaded in Mexico so I could tell them my lieutenants,
German, the cocaine is there, get ready to start collecting
the money.
Q During the time you were planning these Juanita cocaine
shipments, how frequently were you speaking with your
lieutenants and employees?
A Permanently, always, throughout the week, several times
during the week.
Q Would it be fair to say that you are a hands-on boss?
A Always.
Q Did Juanita 2 make it successfully to Mexico?
A That’s correct.
Q Now, for Juanita 2 through 10, was the logistics the same
for all the other cocaine shipments that you just, the process
you just described?
A Precisely the same.
Q Was your level of involvement in the preparation of these
Juanitas similar?
A Yes.
Q Now, you said that Juanita 1 had approximately 36 to
3,800 kilos of cocaine. Did the amounts increase?
A Yes.
Q What was the largest cocaine shipment via Juanita that
you sent?
A 12,500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Now, did you have any issues with any of the earlier
Juanita shipments?
A Yes.
Q Which one was that?
A I had a problem with the Juanita Four. The boat was
actually boarded by the American Coast Guard and it was
searched in detail, my ship, the one carrying the cocaine.
Q Did the Coast Guard find the cocaine on your ship?
A No. We had it in a really well-built secret compartment
and they were not able to find it.
Q What, if anything, did you do with that boat?
A I told them to come back again and to approach the
Colombian Pacific coast to transfer the cocaine to another
Colombian fishing boat because I decided not to use that one
because it had already been boarded so it seemed dangerous to
me, it seemed risky to me.
Q So what did you do?
A I told my lieutenants to not use the boat that had been
boarded to transfer the cocaine to a new, a different fishing
boat. The cocaine was placed in the secret compartments and
he took, took off again going towards the high sea meeting
point where it would have to deliver the cocaine to the
Mexican boat.
Q Now, Mr. Ramirez, you discussed a lot of planning and
expenses to prepare these Juanita shipments.
A Correct.
Q Whose money paid for these expenses for these cocaine
shipments?
A It was my money.
Q Who was the only person authorized to make such payments?
A I was.
Q How did you make these payments occur?
A I would instruct my lieutenants to make said payments.
Q Could your lieutenants make payments without your express
authorization?
A No.
Q How frequently would you meet with your lieutenants and workers to discuss the payments that you were making for the
Juanita shipments?
A Frequently as, as need be, as many times as necessary.
Q And who specifically would you meet with to discuss these
payments?
A With my lieutenant Laureano Renteria, with an accountant
whom we used to call Esteban, and on some occasions, Sergio
Ramirez was also there.
Q In what level of detail would you go into when you would
have these meetings about these shipments?
MR. PURPURA: Your Honor, respectfully, time frame?
THE COURT: Yes.
Q At what point in time are we talking about?
From what time were you sending Juanita cocaine
shipments?
A Approximately from towards the end of 2002 until
Juanita 10 which took place in 2005.
Q So during this time, what level of detail would you get
into about the payments that were made?
A To every detail, to every small detail. All the payments
were checked and instruct, ordered by me.
Q Were there written reports kept for the Juanita drug
shipments?
A Yes.
Q Did you keep these accounting reports?
A Yes. They were created by my people.
Q Did you physically input the information that were
contained in these accounting ledgers?
A No, not me.
Q Who would do that?
A Two of my lieutenants did it who were Laureano Renteria
Mantilla and one of his assistants whose name is Orlando
Alzate.
Q Who ordered these accounting ledgers to be created?
A I did.
Q Why?
A Because I needed to keep control of the shipments of
cocaine, of the expenses, to then be able to know what was the
net gain.
Q Did you keep accounting records of your expenses in
addition to the Juanita drug shipments?
A Correct.
Q What did you call these accounting ledgers?
A The main accounting ledger.
Q What information did you order kept in these records?
A Everything that had to do with the expenses being made
with the Juanitas, about the Juanitas and also other things
that had to do with my organization.
Q Did you, did you order these main accounting ledgers to
be created?
A Yes.
Q Did you review the ledgers for the Juanitas as well as
the main accounting ledgers?
A Correct.
Q How frequently would you review these reports?
A Frequently during the week, you know, when it was
necessary.
Q Did you review every single line item in these reports?
A Yes.
Q Did you ever make changes to these reports?
A Correct, yes, when it was necessary, because something
came up unexpected.
Q Why was it important for you to review these reports?
A Because I wanted to keep track, to have control with all
detail, with great detail of my money.
Q Now, Mr. Ramirez, does there come a time that you leave
Colombia?
A Correct.
Q Approximately when was that?
A In 2004 approximately.
Q Do you remember when during the year?
A Before June. April, May, after the extradition request
from Washington came out because of RICO.
Q Did you continue to send cocaine — I’m sorry.
Where did you go when you left Colombia?
A First to Venezuela.
Q Did you continue to send cocaine shipments to the Sinaloa
Cartel when you were in Venezuela?
A Correct.
Q While were you in Venezuela, who was running your
organization?
A I did it completely myself.
Q How frequently would you talk to members of your
organization?
A Constantly, the entire day, all the time.
Q Did you send any Juanita drug shipments while you were in
Venezuela?
A Correct.
Q Which one?
A Juanita Siete, Juanita 7.
Q Did you see the reports that were created for Juanita 7?
A Of course.
Q How is that?
A I instructed my lieutenants in Venezuela to organize the
job and I checked the accounting and the main accounting
ledger and all the expenses that had to do with that shipment.
Q Mr. Ramirez, does there come a time that you leave
Venezuela?
A Correct.
Q Where do you go?
A I went to Brazil.
Q While were you in Brazil, did you continue to send
cocaine shipments to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Correct.
Q While you were in Brazil, who was in charge of your drug
trafficking organization?
A Me, totally me.
Q How were you able to send your shipments while you were
in Brazil?
A Because I was directing the cocaine shipments with my
lieutenants. I was in permanent communication with them. I
had lieutenants in Venezuela, others, well, the ones I had in
Colombia, and I was in permanent contact with them.
Q Did you create any records — I’m sorry.
Did you send any Juanitas while were you in Brazil?
A Yes.
Q Which ones?
A Juanita 8, 9 and 10.
Q Did you create any or did you have your organization
create any accounting ledgers for Juanita 8, 9 and 10?
A Same as always with the ones before.
Q Did you see those ledgers for Juanita 8, 9 and 10 while
you were in Brazil?
A Of course, yes.
Q How is that possible?
A Because it was sent to me, because they had people bring
memory sticks, my lieutenants would send people.
MS. GOLDBARG: For the witness only — actually, may
I approach, Your Honor, since it’s several pages?
THE COURT: Sure.
MS. GOLDBARG: Let me do this from the stand,
Your Honor, to make it quicker. Just for the witness.
Q Put your glasses on.
I’m showing you 302A. I’m going to go through these
quickly. 302B, 302C, D, E, F, G, H.
MR. PURPURA: Your Honor, just to shortcut it, the
defense will stipulate that, in fact, these ledgers accurately
depict the ledgers that he’s referring to that were prepared.
THE COURT: Okay. Are you stipulating that they are
admissible in evidence?
MR. PURPURA: We have no objection based on the
foundation that was laid in court here today.
THE COURT: Okay. They are received. Just recite
the total numbers, the first and last.
MS. GOLDBARG: Sure. 302I, 302J, 302K and 302L. So
the government would move without objection 302A through L
into evidence.
THE COURT: Okay. They are in.
(Government Exhibits 302A through 302L so marked.)
MS. GOLDBARG: I’m going to put on the screen for
the jury to see 302A.
Q Mr. Ramirez, what are we looking at here?
A These are the expenses for the Juanita 2 shipment.
Q According to this ledger on 302A, how many kilos of
cocaine was in Juanita 2?
A 6,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q According to this ledger, who had the responsibility to
receive the cocaine at the high seas?
A So, the Beltran Leyvas through Olafo or Ofalto, my
lieutenant Alvaro Palau.
Q I have an arrow here. Is that where you say Olafo,
O-L-A-F-O?
A Correct.
Q What is — is that a code word?
A Yes.
Q What does that mean?
A It was the person from the Sinaloa Cartel Federation who
was investing in the cocaine shipment I was sending to them in
high sea.
Q And above that, there’s a name. There’s a name. What is
that name?
A Yamile.
Q Who is that?
A That was me. That was a code word for me.
Q So according to this, how much did you have invested in
Juanita 2?
A 3,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q And who were the investors, who were the Mexican
investors in this cocaine shipment, Juanita 2?
A The Sinaloa Cartel or Federation people.
Q And who would that be at this time?
A Mr. Guzman Loera, Beltran Leyvas and Vicente Carrillo,
Mayo Zambada and his brother Rey Zambada and Nacho Coronel.
Q Turn now to 302B. According to 302B, how many kilos of
cocaine were sent on Juanita 2?
A 6,465 kilos of cocaine.
Q Let’s zoom in a little. See how many kilos it says
there?
A I only see up to the column where it says, “Saldo.” I
don’t see all the way down.
Q If you look at the top.
A 6,165 kilos.
Q I’m sorry. This is Juanita 3?
A Yes. On the top, it says 6,165 kilos, but on the bottom,
it says that the total sent was 6,485 kilos of cocaine.
Q Why the difference between the top line and the bottom
line?
A Because one of my lieutenants who we called El Broder
invested 300 kilos of cocaine, he provided 300 kilos of
cocaine in shipments.
Q According to this ledger, who was responsible for
receiving this cocaine on behalf of The Sinaloa Cartel?
A Nacho Coronel.
Q How do you know that?
A Because of my lieutenants and because the N was a code
word we used in the ledgers to refer to him.
Q Showing you what’s now in evidence as Government
Exhibit 604-C.
(Exhibit published.)
Q This is Page 1.
THE COURT: 304-C, right?
MS. GOLDBARG: Yes, sir. Yes, Your Honor.
Q This is page 1 (published) and now I am showing you
page 2 (published).
According to this ledger, how many kilos of cocaine
were sent on Juanita – 4?
A 8,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Can you circle where you see that?
A Correct. (So marked.)
Q And according to this ledger, who was responsible for
receiving the cocaine shipment at the high seas for The
Sinaloa Cartel?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera.
Q How do you know that?
A Because S-H-A, Sha, that’s how we refer to him,
Mr. Guzmán Loera.
Q Can you circle –
A And my lieutenants.
Q I’m sorry.
Can you circle where you see that?
A Correct. (So marked.)
Q Could you read that off again, please?
A It says S-H-A, Sha, 3,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Let me zoom in a little bit. Is that first letter C or
an S?
A C-H-A.
Q And what did C-H-A mean?
A That’s a code word we used to refer to Mr. Guzmán Loera,
like Chapo. We only used Cha.
Q According to this ledger, how many kilos did The Sinaloa
Cartel invest in Juanita – 4?
A They invested in 3,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Of the total 8,000 investment?
A 8,000 kilos of cocaine.
Break—–
Q Mr. Ramirez, before our break you testified that in 2004
you went from Colombia to Venezuela.
Do you recall that testimony?
A That’s correct.
Q Why did you leave Colombia and go to Venezuela?
Because the U.S. Government requested my extradition and
they even offer a $5 million reward. And the U.S. government
and the Colombian government were doing everything possible to
capture me.
Q How do you know this?
A Because I lived through it. Because the U.S. Government
requested my extradition. They publish a picture of me with
the reward of up to $5 million all over the country.
Q Prior to this did you have any information from your
corrupt contacts about the U.S. investigation against you?
A Yes.
Q Did you ever make bribery payments directly to U.S. law
enforcement officers?
A No.
Q Did you try?
A Yes.
Q How?
A To a group of the Colombian police, an elite group of the
Colombian police who worked with the group named Siu, who
worked for the U.S. Government embassy in Colombia in Bogota
and along with the DEA agents assigned to said embassy.
Q But did any DEA agents receive your money directly that
you’re aware of?
A No, never.
Q Going back to Government Exhibit 302-C in evidence, these
are the ledgers for Juanita – 4.
(Exhibit published.)
Q Now, you’ve testified previously that Juanita – 4 had to
be sent back to Colombia because it had been aborted by the
U.S. Coast Guard.
Do you recall that?
A Correct.
Q Is there anything in the ledgers that are Juanita – 4
that indicate this event?
A Yes.
Q Could you mark it, please?
A (So marked.) Rental of new Juanita.
Q And if I’d ask you to read what you have in the
observations column?
A Yes.
Q What does it say there?
A Juanita’s unit was changed to $60.
Q What does that mean?
A That Juanita was changed means that the boat was changed
and that brought an additional cost of $60 per kilo of cocaine
that was transferred to the other ship.
Q You also testified, Mr. Ramirez, that you had accounting
ledgers for the main accounting ledger for your organization?
A Correct.
Q Showing you what’s in evidence as Government
Exhibit 302-J, do you recognize this document?
(Exhibit published.)
A Yes.
Q What is it?
A It is an accounting from the book that we used to call
the main accounting ledger.
Q Is there anything in here in this main accounting ledger
referring to Juanita – 4?
A Correct, yes.
Q What is that?
A Up above it says: Units pad are going out for Juanita -
4. Then it says transport for Juanita – 4 is also going out.
And then it says, payment for Juanita – 4 for the cost of
transportation.
Q And what does it say in the observation code for that
last entry you just read?
A Juanita was changed due to safety reasons.
Q And also showing you what’s in evidence as 302-K.
A Correct.
Q And what is this document here, 302-K?
(Exhibit published.)
A This is a document of the accounting from the main
accounting ledger.
Q Do you see any reference here to Juanita – 4?
A Correct.
Q What does it say?
A 50 percent payment Juanita – 4.
Q What does it say in the other columns?
A Next to it, it says: Payment is made for 7,660 units.
Then three other references to Juanita – 4 appear. New
reporters for the delay in the going out.
Q What is a reporter, Mr. Ramirez?
A Reporteros were the reports that we receive from the
Colombian Navy for our corruption payments to them, which were
informing us and giving us the navigational charts of where
the American frigate would be on the Pacific Ocean.
Q Now, moving along to 302-D, Juanita-5.
According to the ledger, how many kilos of cocaine
were sent on Juanita-5?
(Exhibit published.)
A 10,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q And can you circle that, please?
A Yes. (So marked.)
Q According to these ledgers, who within The Sinaloa Cartel
was responsible for receiving this cocaine at the high seas?
A The Beltran Leyvas through one of my lieutenants, Alvaro
Palau, Olfato.
Q Can you circle where you see that name?
A (So marked.)
Q And above that name do you see Olmedo, what is that?
A That’s me. That’s another code word to refer to myself.
Q Who were the investors from The Sinaloa Cartel in this
cocaine shipment?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera, the Beltran Leyva brothers, Mr. Nacho
Coronel, Mayo Zambada with his brother Rey Zambada, and
Viceroy, Vicente Carrillo.
Q Moving along to Juanita – 6.
(Exhibit published.)
MS. GOLDBARG: 302-E, for the record.
BY MS. GOLDBARG:
Q How many kilos of cocaine did you send to The Sinaloa
Cartel in Juanita – 6?
A 10,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Can you mark where you see that?
A (So marked.) Here.
Q According to the record for Juanita – 6, who was
responsible for receiving the shipment of cocaine at the high
seas?
A The Beltran Leyva brothers through my lieutenant, Olfato
Alvaro Palau.
Q And how much did The Sinaloa Cartel invest in this
cocaine shipment, Juanita – 6?
A 2500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Who were the names that are underneath Olfato,
O-L-F-A-T-O?
A Riascos, Broder, Alex, Don R.
Q Who are those people?
MS. GOLDBARG: Hold on, I’m sorry. Is there a
problem with the microphone?
THE COURT: Say something.
MS. GOLDBARG: Can we try that one more time, Your
Honor? Sorry.
THE COURT: Still?
MS. GOLDBARG: No.
THE COURT: Why don’t you try turning it off and
turning it on and see if that helps.
BY MS. GOLDBARG:
Q Who are the people that are below Olfato’s names, do they
belong to your organization?
A Yes.
Q And who are the investors from The Sinaloa Cartel in this
cocaine shipment?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera, the Beltran Leyva brothers, Mayo
Zambada with his brother Rey Zambada, Nacho Coronel and
Vicente Carrillo.
Q Showing you now what’s in evidence Government
Exhibit 302-F.
(Exhibit published.)
Q Juanita – 7, how many kilos of cocaine did you send to
The Sinaloa Cartel in Juanita – 7?
A 10,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q And according to this ledger, who was responsible for
receiving the cocaine shipment for The Sinaloa Cartel?
A Nacho Coronel.
Q And how much did The Sinaloa Cartel invest in this
cocaine shipment?
A 2500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Who were the members of The Sinaloa Cartel that invested
in this cocaine shipment?
And let me ask this question: Is it the same
members of The Sinaloa Cartel you just said on the last three
occasions?
A Correct.
Q Moving on to Juanita – 8.
(Exhibit published.)
BY MS. GOLDBARG:
Q According to Government Exhibit 302-G, the accounting for
Juanita – 8, how many kilos of cocaine did you send to The
Sinaloa Cartel on this cocaine shipment?
A 10,500 kilos of cocaine.
Q And who from The Sinaloa Cartel was responsible for
receiving Juanita – 8?
A The Beltran Leyva brothers through my lieutenant, Alvaro
Palau.
Q How do you know that from this ledger?
A Because of the accounting and because Orestes was the
same Alvaro Palau. That was another code word we used to
refer to him.
Q Orestes, is that that name right there?
A Yes, Orestes.
Q And the name above Orestes Olmedo, who is that a
reference to?
A That is me, that was a code word to refer to me.
Q Going through Government Exhibit 302-H in evidence, which
is the ledger for juanita nine, can you tell the jury how many
kilos of cocaine you sent to the Sinaloa Cartel in juanita
nine?
A 12,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q According to this ledger, who was responsible within the
Sinaloa Cartel of receiving this juanita nine cocaine
shipment?
A Nacho Coronel.
Q And how do you know that?
A From the accountant, from my lieutenant, and because
Nieto was a code word that we used to use to refer to Nacho
Coronel.
Q Can you tell us where on the ledger it shows Nieto,
N-I-E-T-O?
A Here.
Q According to this record, how many kilos of cocaine did
the Sinaloa Cartel invest in in juanita nine?
A 2,500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Lastly, going to juanita ten, Government Exhibit 302-I,
according to this exhibit, accounting for juanita ten, how
many kilos of cocaine did you send to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A 3,200 kilos of cocaine.
Q From this ledger, could you tell who was responsible for
receiving this cocaine from the Sinaloa Cartel?
A I know it precisely. Barco was my lieutenant who
organized the logistics to receive the shipment.
Q Mr. Ramirez, let me ask you, did you turn these
accounting ledgers over to the U.S. Government?
A No.
Q Now, you testified that juanita eight, nine, and ten were
sent while you were in Brazil. Do you recall that?
A Yes.
Q Did juanita one through ten make it successfully to
Mexico?
A No.
Q How many successfully made it to Mexico?
A Seven juanitas.
Q What happened to the other three?
A They were seized.
Q How do you know that?
A Through my lieutenant and because I personally directed
the shipment of that load of cocaine. I was personally on top
of it all the time.
Q What are the names of the three juanitas that were
seized?
A Juanita eight, juanita nine, and juanita ten.
Q When was juanita eight seized?
A September 2004, approximately.
Q Do you remember when juanita nine was seized?
A Yes.
Q When was that?
A Also approximately September 2004.
Q How do you remember this so clearly?
A Because that’s a tragedy for me as a drug trafficker
because in my entire history as a drug trafficker, I had never
had two ships seized by the American authorities, that had
never happened to me.
Q How many kilos total were there in juanita eight and
juanita nine?
A 22,500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Who were the investors of the Sinaloa Cartel of those two
2,500 kilos of cocaine?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera, Beltran Leyva, Nacho Coronel, Mayo and
Ray Zambada, and Vicente Carrillo, Viceroy.
Q What kind of shipping vessels were these?
A Shipping vessels. I’m sorry, they were white shipping
vessels.
Q Do you know where the cocaine was found aboard the ships?
A Not exactly, but it was stored in a secret compartment in
the structure of the ships.
Q Now, looking briefly at juanita eight, according to this
ledger, what did you put on juanita eight, and this is 302-G
for the record?
A What do you mean? I didn’t understand the question. Can
you repeat the question.
Q According to this ledger, did you place anything on the
boat?
It says the word “hielo” right there, H-I-E-L-O?
A Okay.
Q Why did you put — what is that?
A That’s two tons of ice that we placed in the boat’s ice
chests for the catch that had been caught supposedly by the
boat.
Q Would you occasionally put fish on the boats as well?
A Yes, of course.
Q What kind of fish?
A White fish, sharks.
Q Now, as a result of the seizures of juanita eight and
juanita nine, did you change of any of the methods of
transporting cocaine to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Yes.
Q What did you do?
A Well, it occurred to me or I gave instructions to my
lieutenants of building submarines.
Q What do you mean by a submarine?
A A submarine is a vessel that submerges a few meters under
the water, that way it could cross the Pacific Ocean and avoid
being detected by American frigate boats and by the American
airplanes that are patrolling the Pacific Ocean, and when they
see a suspicion fishing vessel, they board it. So we did this
to avoid that because we had lost two shipments in those two
previous fishing vessels.
Q Did you send a submarine to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A In January, February, 2005, approximately, I sent the
first submarine.
Q And what was the name of the shipment?
A Juanita ten.
Q Showing you again 302-I, is the accounting ledger for the
first submarine you sent to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Correct.
Q Did this submarine make it successfully to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A No.
Q What happened?
A It was also seized in the Pacific.
Q Was this the only time you attempted to send a submarine
to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A No.
Q Did you send more submarines to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Correct.
Q How many more submarines did you send to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A Approximately eight to ten additional submarines.
Q How many kilos of cocaine on average did you ship on
these submarine shipments?
A Normally between 4,000 and 5,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q These additional submarines that you sent after juanita
10 was seized, did they all make it successfully to the
Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico?
A That’s correct.
Q Did you start sending cocaine any other way to the
Sinaloa Cartel in addition to the submarines?
A Yes.
Q How else did you start sending cocaine to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A We were also using small aircraft, piston planes to
Central America.
Q Did you have a code word for the small airplanes?
A Correct.
Q What was that code word?
A Cometas.
THE INTERPRETER: C-O-M-E-T-A-S, by interpreter.
Q Showing you what’s in evidence as Government Exhibit
302-L. What is this document?
A It’s the main ledgers accounting.
Q Do you see anything in here related to the cometa?
A Correct
Q Where is that?
A Here.
Q And what does it say there?
A It says 50 percent payment transport cometa four.
Q Can you read the line above that, please, as well?
A Payment manufacturing 800 units cometa four.
Q What does that mean to you?
A 800 kilos of cocaine that we had made because those were
the 800 kilos that we sent on that airplane.
Q And who were these cometas going to?
A Central America, Guatemala.
Q And who was receiving them?
A The Sinaloa Cartel people.
Q Do you know approximately how many planes of cocaine you
sent to the Sinaloa Cartel during this timeframe?
A Yes.
Q Approximately how many?
A Approximately 10 airplanes.
Q What was the average quantity of cocaine per airplane?
A 600 to 800 kilos of cocaine.
Q Did these 10 planes make it successfully to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A Not all of them.
Q Who was your lieutenant in charge of the airplanes, the
cometas?
A Sophia, and another person we called Victor.
Q Now, during this time that you are sending the juanita
cocaine shipments to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, do you know
where these drugs are being sold?
A Correct.
Q How do you know this?
A Through my lieutenants and picking up the money for the
cometas, for the airplanes that we were sending.
Q Where was the Sinaloa Cartel sending the cocaine that
they were receiving on the cometas?
A To the United States.
Q Now, you mentioned earlier that there were various
methods of transportation you learned about including trains.
Did you have any specific conversations with any of your
lieutenants about the transportation of your cocaine via
train?
A Correct.
Q How did this conversation come up?
A Because there had been a delay in paying me money for the
cocaine I had sent to the Sinaloa Cartel, to the Federation.
So I spoke to my lieutenant, well, to two of my lieutenants,
and I said, what’s happening, why is there a delay with my
money. And they said it was because the Sinaloa Cartel people
had had a cocaine seizure in the U.S. and it had been
transported by train.
Q Did your lieutenants tell you where that train seizure
occurred in the United States?
A They said the seizure had been in New York.
Q Did your lieutenants tell you what type of trains were
being used for the shipment of cocaine?
A Correct.
Concludes testimony regarding Juanitas page 100 thru 132 testimony Monday December 3rd
Source: http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2019/02/el-chapo-trial-chupeta-testimony.html
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