El Chapo, the recently-arrested head of the Sinaloa cartel and hip-hop hero (there are a bunch of songs about him and uncountable references to him in individual lyrics), has been revealed today as even more ruthless than many thought. A witness in his trial, Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa, who was one of Chapo's main cocaine suppliers, testified that he told the cartel boss he'd never be a supplier of meth amphetamine, noting it's highly addictive nature and saying that he didn't "like to fuck around with ephedrine," the base ingredient of meth. However, Chapo went ahead and cut a secret deal with his brother Alex and his sister Dolly.
When Cifuentes eventually found out about the deal he was broke and on the run in Venezuela, so he softened his position. “Hunger made me change my mind” he said. Chapo's lawyer, asked him again, seemingly for dramatic effect, “hunger made you change your morality, isn’t that right?” to which Cifuentes replied, “yes, sir. That’s correct.”
Although Cifuentes had his principles, however weak, about meth he was ruthless in other ways. This exchange, quoted by the New York Daily News, is illustrative of some of the strange standards held by Cifuentes and Chapo:
“I feel responsible, that’s why I confessed it to the government. But I didn’t give the order to have him killed,” Cifuentes testified.
“And you felt bad about that because you promised Flaco’s father on his deathbed that you would take care of Flaco?” Lichtman asked.
“Yes, sir,” Cifuentes replied.
“Don Flaco’s murder still weighs heavily on you?” Lichtman asked.
“And every murder that I have committed — yes, sir,” Cifuentes said.
