The Sinaloa cartel allegedly bribed Mexico's President, Enrique Peña Nieto and former President, Felipe Calderón , claimed Jeffrey Lichtman , Joaquín Chapo Guzmán 's lawyer, before the jury during the drug lord 's trial .
Felipe Calderón
quickly denied the accusations through his Twitter account:
Enrique Peña Nieto
has made no comments, but his spokesperson posted a message on Twitter , denying the claims:
Lichtman
also claimed that the true Sinaloa Cartel leader in his co-defendant, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada , who is at large, and who was paid “the current and previous Mexican President millions of dollars in bribes .”
His lawyers' strategy is to claim El Chapo is only a middle-ranking member of the criminal organization , commanded by El Mayo Zambada . They also describe El Chapo as a “ mythological figure ” used by the Mexican government as a “ scapegoat ” in the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo.
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