El Chapo's right-hand man tells trial he gave former Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto a $100million bribe while his boss was on the run
By Jennifer Smith
Daily Mail
January 15, 2019
El Chapo gave former Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto a $100million bribe in 2012, according to the drug kingpin's right hand man.
Alex Cifuentes is one of several witnesses testifying against his former boss at a highly anticipated Brooklyn trial.
On Tuesday, he claimed under cross-examination from El Chapo's lawyers that he had the bribe delivered to Nieto by an unnamed woman in Mexico City.
'Mr. Guzmán paid a bribe of $100 million to President Peña Nieto?' Jeffrey Lichtman, one of the drug dealer's lawyers, asked.
Cifuentes replied 'yes' but later tried to backtrack, saying: 'It wasn't like that.'
Cifuentes first told prosecutors about the bribe in 2016 after El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, was recaptured.
At the time the bribe is said to have been given, Guzman was on the run after his first prison escape in 2001 and Nieto had just been elected.
It was during the years between 2001 and 2014, when he was captured again, that he was able to grow his empire from the Sinaloa mountains.
Cifuentes did not tell the court on Tuesday specifically whether the bribe was for.
El Chapo was arrested again in 2014, when Nieto was still in office.
It supports claims made by El Chapo's followers and even his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, who have long claimed that Nieto is corrupt and disloyal to the people of Mexico.
The former Mexican president has always vehemently denied accepting bribes from any cartel groups.
He proudly boasted about Guzman's recapture in 2016 then handed him over to the US without question the following January.
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