Cartel S. A.: so you operated the organization of El Chapo

Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía is going with plenty of pride. Always speaks with the “my” in front. The sinister drug lord of colombia, known in the world of the drug as a Lollipop, boasts that his cocaine was the best in the market. “Optimal quality”, said in testimony before the federal court in Brooklyn, where it is processed to the capo mexican Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. But for the product to illicit could get to the final consumer needed to have a structure perfectly tuned to transport it, distribute it and collect the benefits in the form of capitalism and more wild and cruel imaginable.

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Just look at the face of Lollipop, 55 years of age, to understand that he was a true chameleon. The former head of the Norte Valle cartel has the face completely disfigured after the multiple facial procedures that had to be done to escape justice. To that same transformation vampiresca subjected to your business, to the point that he described the narco-trafficking industry as an agile company, in constant evolution to adapt to the working conditions.

The change of tactics was a matter, he explained, to maximize the benefit and ensure its survival. Ramirez Abbey was one of the leaders in the business of drugs more violent. Ordered, in his own words, more than 150 killings of rivals who got in his way and preserve his power. In less than two decades went from zero to selling more than 500 tons of cocaine in the united States, which moved mainly through the mexican cartel of Sinaloa.

Lollipop began working with El Chapo because it was the fastest and most effective at that time. “He was looking for the best quality”, he explained. That was at the beginning of the nineties, after a first encounter in a hotel of Mexico City. It took them two months to define the operating. Guzmán asked him to change a quota of 40% by transporting the goods to Los Angeles. “It was more expensive than the other”, he explained, “but it guaranteed the protection of the cargo and of my employees.”

Ramirez Abbey considered himself a businessman and a great negotiator. He understood that the security had a cost that had to be paid. The first shipment arrived in less than a week, when the rest of them did the job in a month or more. “Not what I expected,” he admitted. The drug is sold in 90% in New York. Lollipop explained as manipulating the market to have a greater Milanobet control. “A lot of times the keeper to climb up the price and get a greater benefit,” he said.

“Invasion”

Brought innovation to the transportation to avoid to intercept the shipments. Began sending aircraft from Colombia to Mexico. Came to send up to 14 planes loaded with cocaine in a single night to clandestine airstrips, where El Chapo had a team waiting for composed of download and tanks of kerosene to refuel the aircraft. The movement came to be of such a scale that officials had paid them commented that it seemed like an “invasion”.

At that time the u.s. authorities and the colombian began to shake the fence, so to prevent the seizures came up with the capos of the Sinaloa cartel to modify the method to transport the drug to Mexico, using fishing boats that sailed in the Pacific waters. “No one had ever used before,” he explained, “it was a way a virgin.” To demonstrate its confidence in the new strategy loaded a boat with 10 tons of cocaine. After devised to do so with semisubmarinos.

The narco Ramírez Abadía, alias Lollipop

Juan Carlos Ramírez and Joaquín Guzmán entered into contract thanks to Ismael El Mayo Zambada, the current leader of the Sinaloa cartel. Jesus The King Zambada, his brother, also detailed in his testimony the complex logistics structure of the company. Controlled all the movements of the detail. The cocaine was classified by source and quality in the stores of City of Mexico. And established an accounting rigorous in order to continue the payments, including the gunmen and journalists.

there Came a moment in which the arrangements through corruption with the colombian authorities and mexican stopped working, which increased the risk to the business. “The seizures are the greatest tragedy for a drug dealer,” he admitted. Lollipop, it says, was already “súperrico” when the forces of the order we were walking on the heels. So he decided to again change tactics anticipating his arrest and disassembled the entire structure of distribution in the united STATES.

behind the scenes

instead of sending it to the u.s. market, he thought he could evade justice by selling it directly on the high seas to the Sinaloa cartel. “I wanted to act behind the scenes,” he explained, “I was going to earn less money but I thought I would have less problems with the authorities of the USA”. Lollipop ended up leaving Colombia. Operated from Venezuela and later from Brazil, where he was arrested in 2007 and where he was extradited a year later.

The FBI estimates that 60% of the cocaine in the country came to be yours. Now part of the witness protection program in the united STATES, where it resides, and is one of the main cooperating in the criminal case against El Chapo. The colombian authorities have confiscated property worth over 1,000 million dollars, including paintings of Botero. His testimony corroborated the description that was also Miguel Angel Martínez, alias El Gordo, on the structure of the mexican cartel, of which he was manager.