Feds Don't Want El Chapo's Jury To Hear About Botched Justice Dept. Operation "Fast And Furious" That Let Guns Flow Over Border
By Molly Crane-Newman and Nancy Dillon
The New York Daily News
Prosecutors at El Chapo’s drug trafficking trial in Brooklyn want to shoot down any mention of the government’s botched “Fast and Furious” gun probe in witness testimony.
They’re asking a federal judge to block any defense questions about the program in which federal agents allowed illegal weapons to flow over the border to Mexico in an effort to gain intelligence on drug cartels.
Many of the weapons were ultimately lost, including a high-powered .50 caliber rifle later found at a hideout used by El Chapo, who has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen charges tied to drug trafficking, money laundering, conspiracy and illegal firearms.
According to new testimony Monday, he smuggled massive quantities of cocaine to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago using secret compartments in tanker trains partially filled with gooey vegetable oil to discourage searches.
Prosecutors claim ex-drug lord, whose real name is JoaquÃn (El Chapo) Guzmán, wants to highlight failures of “Fast and Furious” to “distract and confuse the jury,” U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue wrote in his motion filed Friday.
The New York Daily News
Prosecutors at El Chapo’s drug trafficking trial in Brooklyn want to shoot down any mention of the government’s botched “Fast and Furious” gun probe in witness testimony.
They’re asking a federal judge to block any defense questions about the program in which federal agents allowed illegal weapons to flow over the border to Mexico in an effort to gain intelligence on drug cartels.
Many of the weapons were ultimately lost, including a high-powered .50 caliber rifle later found at a hideout used by El Chapo, who has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen charges tied to drug trafficking, money laundering, conspiracy and illegal firearms.
According to new testimony Monday, he smuggled massive quantities of cocaine to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago using secret compartments in tanker trains partially filled with gooey vegetable oil to discourage searches.
Prosecutors claim ex-drug lord, whose real name is JoaquÃn (El Chapo) Guzmán, wants to highlight failures of “Fast and Furious” to “distract and confuse the jury,” U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue wrote in his motion filed Friday.
Read more at The New York Daily News.
