The wrath of El Chapo: Chilling texts reveal the drug lord told his mistress
Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's mistress, Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez Lopez revealed how in texts from seven years ago, the drug lord threatened the life of herself, other women and even his own family.
The 29-year-old testified in a Brooklyn, New York court Thursday and shared with jurors personal messages between the pair that prove he would ruthlessly have the rumored mother of his lovechild killed if need be.
'Look, the mafia kills people who don't pay or people who snitch but not if you're serious, love,' Chapo wrote in one 2012 message, it was revealed at his federal court trial.
He added: 'Lies are what cause problems. Don't lie and people will always see the good, love. I'm telling you this because I love you.'.
His mistress said at the trial she was 'feeling threatened' and scared 'he could actually hurt me'. Sanchez told him she was 'not doing anything bad' but he was still suspicious.
The New York Post reports she said El Chapo would have his people confiscate her phone during visits. On one occasion when his secretary informed him his associate Tio Virgo had died, he delivered a chilling warning.
'He turned around and looked at me in a slow demeanor and then he said something I did not like,' she testified.
'He said from that point on, whoever betrayed him, they would die. Whether they were family or women, they were going to die.'. The revealing cell phone communications seemed to confirm rumors they share a lovechild.
One message from seven years ago read: 'This is your son. El Chapo was seemingly proud of the boy and replied to the news: 'Hello, my king. I congratulate you because you're a real man.'.
The child – believed to named Rubencito - was sometimes referred to when they organized drug deals. Alongside winking and kiss emoji, wrote: 'A kiss for each. For you and for Rubencito, two for you.'.
Sánchez, a former legislator in Guzman's home state of Sinaloa, told the jury that the relationship mixed business with pleasure in a way that caused discomfort.
'Until this day, I'm confused because I thought we were in a romantic relationship,' she said as Guzman's wife of more than a decade sat in the court gallery. At another point, she said: 'Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I didn't.
El Chapo's wife seemed unphased with the current state of her husband's trial and recent revelations by a woman claiming to be his mistress. During the testimony, Coronel smirked as an emotional Sánchez broke down and wept.
She laughed as the witness left the courtroom sobbing with her lapel microphone still on, according to the NY Post. Outside the court Coronel beamed as she left the hearing, flashing smiles for photographers.
Sanchez, once nicknamed 'Chapodiputada' (Chapo deputy) by local media, said she became involved with the married Guzman in 2011, about the time Coronel was pregnant with twin girls.
The trouble began when Guzman drafted Sanchez to purchase marijuana for him, with instructions to ready 400 kilograms (882 pounds) for each plane used to transport it from the countryside.
Prosecutors showed the jury intercepted texts where the pair called each 'love' as they plotted how best to move drugs, though some of Guzman's messages sounded more menacing.
Sanchez said she would sometimes sweet talk Guzman 'so he didn't think I would rat him out'. The romance began to sour toward the end of 2012 but 'seemed like it would never end,' Sanchez said.
She said she would visit him at one of his many hideouts in Cabo San Lucas and communicate with him by text on mobile phones he gave her.
When he invited her to one of the safe houses in the Sinaloa city of Culiacan in 2014, she automatically accepted.
Earlier, a DEA agent described how Guzman eluded a manhunt in 2014 by escaping through a sewer system. U.S. authorities have said Sanchez was with him at the time.
'I heard, like, a lot of thumps and helicopters. I heard yelling,' Sánchez told jurors about being in bed with Guzman on February 16, 2014, the New York Daily News reported. A combined force of U.S.
and Mexican authorities were trying to ram down the fortified door to the safe house when El Chapo, still naked, directed her to the bathroom where a button raised the bathtub to reveal a secret escape tunnel.
'It was very dark and I was very scared,' Sanchez said. 'He took off running. He left us behind.'. Sanchez followed Guzman through the tunnel away from the safe house, at some point feeling water on her legs.
When asked how long she had been traveling in the dark, she guessed that it was at least more than one hour or 'enough to traumatize me'.
US DEA liaison Victor Vasquez testified along with video footage about the failed arrest attempt to raid the spacious home Sanchez and Guzman had fled.
Guzman was ultimately caught but ended up escaping from a Mexican prison. He was recaptured and sent to the U.S. in 2017 to face charges he says are fabricated.
She said she also trafficked marijuana for him, with instructions to ready 400 kilograms (882 pounds) for each plane used to transport it from the countryside.
He sought to purchase the marijuana on credit, but she refused because she was worried the growers would never get paid. 'I did not agree because it was unfair,' she said.
The former legislator was arrested by US authorities in San Diego, California, in 2017 after they discovered she helped launder cash and traffic drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel.
She admitted took a plea deal to cooperate with prosecutors to help reduce her own sentence.