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El Chapo’s Team Believes He Deserves Another Trial. Here’s Why.

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By Townhall. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s legal team on Friday announced that they would be seeking a new trial for the alleged Mexican drug lord. According to Guzman’s team, multiple jurors violated a federal judge’s instructions when they followed the media’s account of the trial, the Associated Press reported.

Guzman’s team plans to ask U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan to perform an evidentiary hearing “to determine the extent of the misconduct.”

The decision comes after a VICE News article was published with an interview from one of the jurors. In the interview, the juror said at least five other jurors broke protocol and followed media coverage of the case. (Read more from “El Chapo’s Team Believes He Deserves Another Trial. Here’s Why.” HERE)

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Inside El Chapo’s Jury

By VICE. For the first time since the trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán ended on Feb. 12, a member of the jury has described what it was like be part of the historic case.

In an exclusive interview with VICE News, the juror claimed that at least five fellow jurors violated the judge’s orders by following the case in the media during the trial. The juror also shared details of the deliberations, the extraordinary security precautions that were in place, and the jury’s views on Chapo, his lawyers, the prosecution, and several key witnesses.

The jury deliberations dragged on for six days largely because of one stubborn holdout, the juror claimed. The juror said another factor before the deliberations began was the prospect that Chapo would be forced to spend the rest of his life alone in a prison cell. . .

Now that Chapo has been convicted, he’ll likely be sent to the so-called “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” a federal “supermax” prison in Colorado where many high-profile inmates are kept in solitary. (Read more from “Inside El Chapo’s Jury” HERE)

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‘Fast and Furious’ Rifle Capable of Taking Down Helicopter Found in ‘El Chapo’ Cache

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A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News.

A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car or, as it was intended, take down a helicopter.

After the raid on Jan. 8 in the city of Los Mochis that killed five of his men and wounded one Mexican marine, officials found a number of weapons inside the house where Guzman was staying, including the rifle, officials said.

When agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives checked serial numbers of the eight weapons found in his possession, they found one of the two .50-caliber weapons traced back to the ATF program, sources said.

Federal officials told Fox News they are not sure how many of the weapons seized from Guzman’s house actually originated in the U.S. and where they were purchased, but are investigating. (Read more from “‘Fast and Furious’ Rifle Capable of Taking Down Helicopter Found in ‘El Chapo’ Cache” HERE)

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So, Is Sean Penn Really a CIA Agent? Body Language Expert Reveals the Truth Behind El Chapo Interview

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By Regina F. Graham. Since it was revealed that Sean Penn secretly traveled to Mexico to interview Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera for Rolling Stone, the actor has insisted that he had nothing to do with the drug kingpin’s recapture.

Speaking to CBS 60 Minutes’ Charlie Rose, Penn said his intention in tracking down the escaped drug kingpin and writing about him for Rolling Stone was to kick-start a discussion of the US government’s policy on the War on Drugs.

But the public’s attention has instead been focused on the fact that Penn found and met with Guzman for seven hours in a mountain hideout last October while he was still evading Mexican officials . . .

Susan Constantine, a body language expert, analyzed Penn’s interview with Rose for Radar Online to see if the two-time Oscar winning actor is just trying to cover his tracks.

She explained that throughout the interview, Penn appears to be very passionate and emotional and that she doesn’t think it was an act. (Read more from “So, Is Sean Penn Really a CIA Agent? Body Language Expert Reveals the Truth Behind El Chapo Interview” HERE)

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How Mexico Secretly Launched a Crackdown After Penn Met ‘El Chapo’

By Joshua Partlow. Four days after Sean Penn met with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán last October, Mexican marine helicopters swooped in on the drug lord’s hideout atop a pine-studded peak in the Sierra Madre mountains.

Amid the barrage of gunfire aimed at the collection of four houses known as El Limón, Guzmán was able to make another unlikely escape. But the residents who live scattered in the forests below weren’t so lucky.

Starting that morning, local farmers said, the marines went on a shooting and looting spree that appeared like an act of collective punishment. The marines peppered homes and trucks with bullets, set fire to four-wheelers and stole money, jewelry, blankets and clothes, residents said. The military hemmed in villages, prohibiting people from leaving their homes for up to five days in their ferocious search for Guzmán, according to interviews over four days with residents in the tiny mountain villages. As many as 250 families, nearly 1,000 people, fled the mountains in search of safety, arriving in the nearest city, Cosala, starting Oct. 9, according to the municipal government’s welfare office.

“This did not seem like the Mexican government,” said Maria del Carmen Verenice, a 47-year-old housewife, who added that she crouched in a ditch while shots were fired on the village from helicopters, then spent the next two days hiding in the woods. “This was a terrorist government.”

The Mexican government discounted the allegations against the marines, saying they were unfounded. A Mexican official said the trafficker manipulates his followers to make such claims in order to keep the military out of this drug-producing region of Durango state. “In this moment I have no knowledge that there has been one person” displaced, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. (Read more from “How Mexico Secretly Launched a Crackdown After Penn Met ‘El Chapo'” HERE)

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Hollywood Megastar Under Investigation for Top Secret Meeting With El Chapo

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Sean Penn unwittingly led Mexican marines to El Chapo after meeting him for an extraordinary interview – and is now under investigation.

The sensational meeting took place deep in the Mexican jungle in October and was arranged by Penn, Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and a fixer, with the permission of the Sinaloa cartel.

El Chapo admitted in the bizarre interview to being the biggest drug trafficker in the world and said he sent engineers to Germany to learn how to build the tunnel he would eventually use to escape a maximum security prison.

The cartel boss was captured on Friday in a daring 4am raid by Mexican marines and was returned to Altiplano jail. The double Oscar-winning actor’s meeting with El Chapo led to the gun battle in which he was captured, an official said . . .

In an article written by Penn for Rolling Stone, El Chapo says: ‘I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats.’ (Read more from “Hollywood Megastar Under Investigation for Top Secret Meeting With El Chapo” HERE)

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‘Mission Accomplished’: Mexican President Says El Chapo Caught

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Mexican forces escorted notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman out of an armored vehicle and into a helicopter late Friday night following his arrest after months on the run.

Mexican security forces trying to capture notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in Sinaloa encountered heavy gunfire that led to the deaths of various suspects, the attorney general said . . .

The people linked to the July escape of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman included two pilots, one of his attorneys and a brother-in-law, the attorney general said. Guzman was arrested Friday . . .

Members of Mexico’s navy caught Guzman in an operation about 4:30 a.m. (6:30 a.m. ET) in the coastal city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa state, a senior law enforcement official in Mexico told CNN.

Several people aligned with Guzman died in the raid, the official said. The Mexican navy put the number of dead at five, with six others arrested. No navy personnel were killed, and only one was injured. (Read more from “‘Mission Accomplished’: Mexican President Says El Chapo Caught” HERE)

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