US Prosecutors Charge El Chapo's Sons with Gruesome Fentanyl Experiments on Humans

From: Joe R.

Sent: April 17, 2023

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: US Prosecutors Charge El Chapo's Sons with Gruesome Fentanyl Experiments on Humans

US prosecutors have filed a series of new charges against the sons of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, accusing Los Chapitos of conducting gruesome tests on humans with fentanyl produced by the Sinaloa Cartel. Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed the allegations, which include feeding victims to tigers and injecting a woman repeatedly with fentanyl until she died. The cartel is said to have experimented on individuals tied down to test the potency of the drug, with some dying as a result. The charges also allege that the cartel sent a batch of fentanyl to the US, despite an addict dying from testing it.

Los Chapitos is led by Iván Guzmán Salazar, along with his younger brothers Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López, all of whom are fugitives. The US prosecutors accused them of running “the largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world,” with the cartel relying on a network of precursor chemical suppliers in China and a broker in Guatemala, who was recently arrested.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had denied that cartels were manufacturing illicit fentanyl in clandestine labs across his country, but a delegation of high-ranking Mexican security officials visited Washington to meet Garland and discuss fentanyl cooperation. The US and Mexico also announced the creation of a presidential commission to fight the trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs, firearms and ammunition.

The charges against Los Chapitos and their network come from five indictments filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, called the cases “the most ambitious fentanyl prosecution in American history.”

The indictment outlines a sprawling conspiracy, where fentanyl precursors move from China to Mexico via a group of Guatemala-based smugglers. The importation was allegedly run by Ana Gabriela Rubio Zea, who brokered deals between drug traffickers and Chinese chemical manufacturers. The indictment lists 23 people, including four alleged Chinese co-conspirators involved in the trafficking of fentanyl precursors. Kun Jiang is named as one of Rubio Zea’s “primary sources of supply in China,” alleging that he used Chinese air carriers to send the product. The other three, Huatao Yao, Yonghao Wu, and Yaqin Wu, allegedly “are another significant source of chemicals”. The precursors were allegedly sent by Yao’s company, Wuhan Shuokang Biological Technology Ltd., also known as SK Biotech, often being paid “in cryptocurrency or via cross-border bank transfers.”

The US Treasury Department announced sanctions against Zea and the Chinese network, adding them to the “kingpin list” to freeze assets and cut off access to the US financial system.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said Friday that Los Chapitos were the biggest outfit in the game and that they had been targeted proactively because they were responsible for most of the fentanyl flooding US communities. The Sinaloa Cartel has also allegedly used cryptocurrency to launder its drug proceeds. The charges come amid growing concern about the spread of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid blamed for a surge in overdose deaths across the US.

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