A man believed to be one of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s top aides pleaded guilty to delivering more than 150 kilograms of cocaine and more than 30 kilograms of heroin in Chicago federal court on Friday.
The 51-year-old felon known as “The Engineer,” Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, faces a minimum of ten years in jail and a maximum life sentence.
Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, alias “El Inge,” is displayed to the press on December 26, 2011 while in the hands of army soldiers at the federal organized crime investigations headquarters (SIEDO) in Mexico City. Marco Ugarte / AP
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, Sarabia stated through an interpreter that he had “always made a living as a cattle rancher,”
In June 2020, Sarabia was extradited to face accusations. The date of his sentencing is July 7.
He was initially indicted alongside Guzman and others in a 2009 Chicago indictment. Guzman was ultimately tried in New York and is currently serving a life term in jail.
A few days before to Sarabia’s guilty plea, the president of Mexico stated that he would accept Guzman’s request to return from the United States to complete his term on humanitarian grounds. El Chapo’s statement was termed as a “SOS” by one of his lawyers.
The founder of the Sinaloa cartel has asked President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for assistance owing to his alleged “psychological torment” in a U.S. jail.
Lopez Obrador told reporters, “We’re going to review it (the plea),”.
It was uncertain whether Mexico had the authority to fulfill the request, but “but the door must always be left open when it comes to human rights,” regarding human rights, he added.
El Chapo is currently serving a life term in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons-related offenses in 2019.
He is detained at the “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado, which also houses Ted Kaczynski, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Zacarias Moussaoui, and Terry Nichols, an accomplice in the Oklahoma City bombing. It has been dubbed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.” because the facility is so secure, remote, and austere.
According to one of his attorneys, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, Guzman is unhappy with the tough prison circumstances, especially the lack of sunlight and solitude.
This month, Mexican security agents detained one of El Chapo’s sons, Ovidio Guzman, in an operation that left 29 people dead and triggered a violent battle at an airport in the city of Culiacan.
The U.S. Department of State had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Ovidio Guzmán-arrest López’s and/or conviction.