American, Mexican politicians, police are the real power in the drug trade.

• Three years after his conviction, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is in America’s maximum security prison.
• The former Sinaloa cartel chief said high officials are the real powers in the drug trade.
• Guzmán’s lawyer believes that removing the “accused leaders” of the kingpin cartels won’t work.

Ciudad Juarez, México – Five years after his extradition to the United States, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán is pointing fingers at what he says are the real forces behind the drug trade on both sides of the border.

Guzmán, one of the few people allowed to meet with him regularly through his lawyer, Mariel Colón, said authorities must go after “politicians on both sides of the border” to end the drug war.

“The authorities have been ousting these leaders for years to no avail, but if you track down the politicians who allow this to happen, it’s a different story,” Colon told Insider. “That’s what he said before. That’s what he thinks.”

Guzmán knew he could be a political tool for the U.S. and Mexican governments, Colon said.

“Every new American president has a trophy with Trump [it] It was Chapo. Even if he didn’t kill him after that, he still has the trophy.” “It was always just politics,” Colon added.

In the year In 2019, Guzmán, now believed to be 65, was sentenced to life in prison on multiple drug-related charges. Since then, he has been held in solitary confinement at ADX Florence, a “superior” facility in Colorado known as the US’s most secure prison.

Guzman is allowed only one hour a day and 15 minutes of phone calls a month with three people previously investigated by the US government: his mother, one of his sisters, and his youngest son.

“Guzman was completely isolated. He had no recreation outside of his cell, no access to the prison area,” Colon said.

In the year In 2020, the legal team filed a complaint alleging they faced “inhumane conditions,” which was dismissed by a federal judge. Guzmán’s treatment, which his lawyers say is the result of “torture” and “political vendetta,” remains unchanged.

U.S. officials say the security measures are meant to prevent Guzman from escaping or engaging in illegal activities, but since Guzman’s arrest in January 2016, business has been booming for the Sinaloa cartel.

In the year Between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, more than 5,000 pounds of cocaine were seized by US Border Patrol. This increased to over £9,000 in 2017. After a decline in 2018, US Border Patrol cocaine seizures are expected to reach more than 11,000 pounds in 2019 and more than 15,000 pounds in 2020.

The release of other drugs in the U.S. has also increased during that time — a trend that experts say shows a lack of focus on arresting cartel leaders, as U.S. and Mexican authorities have done for decades.

‘The representatives have been bought’.

Testimony at Guzman’s trial implicated several Mexican presidents, police chiefs and high-ranking military officers in the drug trade.

Jesus “El Rey” Zambada, the younger brother of Sinaloa cartel drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, accused on the stand that the “real leaders of the cartel” were Mexican government officials and US law enforcement.

Zambada specifically singled out Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security from 2006 to 2012. Garcia Luna was arrested in the United States in December 2019 and charged with taking bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.

Garcia Luna has pleaded not guilty. The trial was supposed to start in October this year but was delayed until January 2023 at the request of the lawyers.

Garcia Luna is accused of accepting millions of dollars to allow Guzman to “operate with impunity in Mexico” for more than a decade, according to the US Department of Justice. At the same time, Garcia Luna was allegedly making deals with top officials in the US’s top national security and law enforcement agencies.

In October 2020, Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico’s defense minister from 2012 to 2018, was arrested while arriving in Los Angeles on a flight from Mexico City.

Sinfugos faces drug-related charges as part of an investigation into Guzman’s ties to the Sinaloa cartel. He is accused of using his power to protect a faction of the Sinaloa cartel while ordering action against his rivals.

Cienfuegos pleaded not guilty at his first trial, and in a surprise move, U.S. prosecutors dropped the charges after negotiating with the Mexican government. The former general was sent to Mexico and released.

Garcia Luna and Cienfuegos have not been convicted, but a cartel enforcer in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez said Guzman’s allegations were not far from the truth.

In the year In an October 2016 interview with Mexican newspaper El Universal, a mid-level boss in La Linea, the armed wing of the Juárez cartel, said several US border agents were on their payroll.

“The agents have been bought,” the executive said at the time.

In the year In 2016, the Center for Investigative Reporting documented 153 cases of corruption targeting U.S. border officers, most of whom were members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Drug trafficking is the crime followed by bribery and human trafficking and most of the cases cited by the CIR are agents with 10 years of service or less. Most incidents were in Texas, followed by California and Arizona.