Colombian Trafficker "Chupeta" Who Testified Against "El Chapo" is Sentenced to 20 Years

By Socalj 8/15/2023 10:16:00 PM
"Socalj" for Borderland Beat



US Judge Brian Cogan handed down a 20-year prison sentence against Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, better known as “Chupeta”, a former leader of the Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia who supplied Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and later testified against him.

During the hearing held in the same Brooklyn Court that saw the prosecutions of "El Chapo," and Genaro Garcia Luna, the judge recognized that "Chupeta" had been a key part of the cases against traffickers such as "El Chapo" who was convicted in July 2019, in addition to Jesús "El Rey" Zambada, brother of "El Mayo." According to the statements from his defense attorney, "Chupeta" has participated in 75% of the high-level cases in the Eastern District of New York related to Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers.

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Botched Plastic Surgeries

"Chupeta" became a wanted man and his attempts to evade arrest and extradition to the US included fleeing in 2004 to Venezuela and eventually Brazil, bribing governments, and undergoing three plastic surgeries to alter his appearance. In his testimony during the trial against "El Chapo," he stated that he had undergone at least three plastic surgeries to modify his jaw, cheekbones, eyes, ears, and nose.

Before receiving the sentence from Judge Cogan, his lawyer said that "Chupeta" would need "exotic" surgeries to repair the biopolymers wrongly used to fill his face. He has been warned that the botched surgeries could lead to blindness or a stroke.

Although Ramírez Abadía's appearance made him unrecognizable, he was captured in Brazil in August 2007 thanks to intelligence work and voice recognition technology. He had continued to coordinate shipments of cocaine to the Sinaloans while outside of Colombia. In a joint operation between the Brazilian Federal Police and the DEA, the South American authorities recorded his voice by telephone. They sent the recordings to the US to confirm his identity.


Testimony Against "El Chapo"

"Chupeta" was extradited to the US on August 22, 2008. Later, he pleaded guilty to having led an organization dedicated to cocaine trafficking and having amassed a fortune of more than $1 billion. His lawyer said that all together since his arrest "3 different governments got a total of $1 billion in real estate, securities accounts, cash, and precious metals."

He testified to this at the trial of “El Chapo,” alongside the son “Vincentillo” and brother of “El Mayo” and other Colombia traffickers. His testimony stated that starting in 2002, after his early release from Colombian prison, he began sending shipments of cocaine, called “Juanitas” to the Sinaloa Cartel. He sent 10 large shipments for the next 5 years until he was arrested in 2007. He named the ‘investors’ in his cocaine shipments including “El Chapo,” “El Mayo,” “El Rey” Zambada, the Beltran-Leyva brothers, “Nacho” Coronel and for a short time during the Federation’s alliance, Vicente Carrillo, former leader of the Juarez Cartel.

He testified that for the first shipment, “Nacho” coordinated the logistics of the shipment of around 3,600 kilos of cocaine (3.6 tons). The Beltran-Leyva brothers, and even “El Chapo” himself handled the logistics of future shipments. The largest shipment of cocaine that “Chupeta” organized and invested in with members of the Sinaloa Cartel/Federation was 12.5 tons.

More:
https://www.borderlandbeat.com/2023/08/colombian-trafficker-chupeta-who.html