{"id":268712,"date":"2017-05-03T14:26:31","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T18:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=268712"},"modified":"2020-11-13T15:58:19","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T20:58:19","slug":"seeking-el-chapos-billions-us-officials-cant-find-a-single-dollar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/seeking-el-chapos-billions-us-officials-cant-find-a-single-dollar\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking El Chapo\u2019s billions, US officials \u2018can\u2019t find a single dollar\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Too intelligent to use banks \u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before Mexican drug lord Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman was captured last year and extradited to the United States in January, he was believed to have accumulated a fortune in drug profits. US authorities claim his 30-year criminal career garnered $14 billion.<\/p>\n

“As of today, US authorities have not found not even one dollar of El Chapo’s assets,” Mexican Attorney General Raul Cervantes said in an interview with top local broadcaster Televisa, according to\u00a0Reuters.<\/p>\n

Mexican authorities said they have only found minor assets of the notorious drug kingpin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis money hasn\u2019t been found, because he didn\u2019t use the financial system,\u201d\u00a0Cervantes added.<\/p>\n

Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa narcotics cartel, the world\u2019s biggest, is awaiting trial on 17 criminal charges in a maximum-security jail in Manhattan. He escaped twice from prison in Mexico.<\/p>\n

US authorities are seeking the \u201cforfeiture of more than $14 billion in cash proceeds from narcotic sales,\u201d that El Chapo is alleged to have earned his decades-long criminal career, according to US Eastern District of New York court documents.<\/p>\n

There is an ongoing debate about Guzman\u2019s worth. Alejandro Hope, a security expert in Mexico City, said the billions are an assumption.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts off from the assumption that the $14 billion is real and not a fabrication by prosecutors,\u201d\u00a0Hope told Forbes.<\/p>\n

Whatever the size of El Chapo\u2019s assets, Mexico is seeking to retrieve the vast majority of them for itself \u2013 not hand them over to a US court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lion\u2019s share of any of his assets seized, rightfully \u2013 by law and agreement \u2013 belong to Mexico. They are unlikely to find much \u2013 certainly not $14 billion. Mexico will never agree [to handing over the assets],\u201d\u00a0Bruce Bagley, an expert on Mexico\u2019s drug cartels at the University of Miami, told Forbes.<\/p>\n

The $14 billion figure is by far the highest dollar figure ever associated with Guzman\u2019s criminal activities. The US Treasury Department argues that drug trafficking generates an estimated $64 billion annually from sales in the US.<\/p>\n

In 2009,\u00a0Forbes\u00a0magazines estimated Guzman\u2019s net worth at $1 billion. In 2013, however the magazine removed him from the list when his whereabouts were unknown and his assets were too difficult to verify.<\/p>\n

The prospect of the US seizing El Chapo\u2019s estimated fortune has even prompted US Senator Ted Cruz (R, Texas) to suggest introducing a bill, to be called the El Chapo Act, to use the proceeds for building President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed US-Mexico border wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy leveraging any criminally forfeited assets of El Chapo and his ilk, we can offset the wall\u2019s cost and make meaningful progress toward achieving President Trump\u2019s stated border security objectives,\u201d\u00a0Cruz said in a\u00a0statement.<\/p>\n

It is unlikely the act will pass, however, and it would certainly face an uphill political battle with Mexico, which vehemently opposes the border wall, let alone the idea of paying for it.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/387034-us-seeking-el-chapos-billions\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: Too intelligent to use banks \u2026  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":282740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}