'El Chapo' aide who helped FBI tap his
phones takes stand
Send a link to a friend
[January 10, 2019]
By Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Accused Mexican drug
cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was so preoccupied with spying on
his associates he had software installed on their phones to monitor
their texts and conversations, a key prosecution witness testified on
Wednesday, an opening the FBI would later exploit.
Christian Rodriguez, a technician who said he worked for Guzman from
2008 to 2012 and set up a secure communication system for the cartel,
took the stand in federal court in Brooklyn to testify in Guzman's U.S.
trial.
Rodriguez said he handled Guzman's requests to install spyware on about
50 "special phones" he wanted to track. The software allowed Guzman to
monitor users' calls and texts, and even to turn on a phone's microphone
and record at any time without the user's knowledge.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2019/Jan/10/images/ads/current/brickey_sda_2017.png)
FBI agent Steven Marston testified earlier on Thursday that U.S.
authorities obtained text messages from phones used by Guzman's wife and
apparent mistress thanks to the spyware.
Guzman, 61, was extradited to the United States in 2017 to face charges
of trafficking cocaine, heroin and other drugs into the country as
leader of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel.
Rodriguez began cooperating with the FBI while still working for Guzman,
allowing investigators to tap into the cartel's encrypted phone network.
His testimony was accompanied by special security precautions, with
sketch artists instructed not to draw his face.
Rodriguez said he personally installed spyware on about 50 phones. The
technician said he heard from associates of Guzman that their boss
treated the technology "like his toy," often using it to hear what
people said about him immediately after he called them.
Rodriguez's testimony is expected to continue on Thursday.
Marston had earlier on Wednesday read for the jury text messages from
early 2012 the FBI collected through Guzman's spyware.
One of Guzman's lawyers, Jeffrey Lichtman, cross-examined Marston about
his identification on Tuesday of Guzman's voice on recordings, but did
not question the authenticity of the texts.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/011019PICS/news_I15.jpg)
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Joaquin Guzman, the Mexican drug
lord known as "El Chapo", arrives at the Brooklyn Federal
Courthouse, for the trial of Guzman in the Brooklyn borough of New
York, U.S., January 9, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
Some texts show Guzman and his wife, Emma Coronel, discussing the
hazards of cartel life. When Coronel said she was being watched by law
enforcement, Guzman advised her to "live a normal life." In one message,
Coronel assured Guzman that she still had a gun he had given her.
After a raid on a house in the Mexican beach resort of Los Cabos that
captured several of his associates, Guzman told Coronel he had escaped
through a window. He asked her to buy him some necessities, including
aftershave and black moustache dye.
The couple also discussed a one and a half-year birthday party for their
twin daughters, Emmely "Mali" and Maria Joaquina "Kiki" Coronel.
"Our Kiki is fearless," Guzman told Coronel in one message. "I'm going
to give her an AK-47 so she can hang with me."
Coronel watched the testimony impassively, though she seemed to become
uncomfortable when Marston began reading apparently romantic texts
between her husband and another woman, Agustina Cabanilla, who addressed
him as "love."
Other texts showed Cabanillas helping to set up drug deals by passing
information between Guzman and various other people, including one who
used the name "War Princess."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2019/Jan/10/images/ads/current/pestcontrol_bch_termites.png)
In one message to a friend, Cabinillas called Guzman a "jerk" who was
trying to spy on her. But she dismissed the concern.
"Guess what? I'm smarter than him," she told the friend.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Anthony Lin,
Alistair Bell and Tom Brown)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |