El Chapo trial: Joaquín Guzman joked about arming infant daughter with AK47 in texts to wife, court hears

A reminder that Guzman has pleaded not guilty to drug dealing, murder conspiracy and other charges and is on trial in New York. He could face life in prison if convicted.

At the time of the meeting with Guzman, Flores said he and his bother were already moving drugs for the Sinaloa cartel through a middleman. This from Alan Feuer who is in the courtroom for The New York Times.

Flores claims that from 2005 to 2008 he received  38 tons of cocaine from El Chapo and another partner. 

That equates to hundreds of millions of dollars.

With that, we are ending our coverage for today - join us tomorrow for more from the trial.

Pedro Flores will likely still be on the stand when the trial re-starts in the morning.

We’re back with coverage from today’s hearings in the El Chapo trial in Brooklyn, New York. 

Fans of TV crime shows, curious New Yorkers and even tourists have been showing up in court to catch a glimpse of El Chapo, the Associated Press has reported. 

“It was surreal. It was like I was seeing the (Netflix) TV show ‘El Chapo,’” said spectator Peter Stolt, 23, who attended three days of the trial in November and hopes to show up for at least one more.

The six weeks of testimony from law enforcement officials, an imprisoned cocaine kingpin from Colombia and flashy Mexican drug smugglers have contained enough material to fill several seasons of “Miami Vice” or “Narcos.” There has been testimony about secret smuggling tunnels built beneath the border, assassination attempts, bribery of high level police officials, private jets filled with millions of dollars in cash, and factories churning out cocaine-filled cans disguised as hot pepper containers.

AP

Jurors have finally heard what has been reported as the “smoking gun” — a secretly-recorded phone call in which El Chapo can be heard discussing a 20-kilo shipment to Chicago. 

It has been known for some time that jurors would eventually listen to this recording. Wednesday marked the first time it was played to a public audience. 

El Chapo can be heard calling Pedro Flores — a witness against him who continued testimony Wednesday — “amigo” and saying niceties like, “We’re here at your service, you know that.”

“He’s always courteous,” Pedro said in court today. “That’s the way he speaks to people.”

Pedro Flores and El Chapo discuss pricing: Pedro asks for the drug lord to lower the price per kilo, and Chapo eventually agrees to a are of $50,000 per kilo. 

The payment — which came out to exactly $1m — would be transmitted to Chapo’s guys in Chicago, according to a second call jurors also heard Wednesday. 

Jurors got to hear the voice of Alex Cifuentes on the second phone call played in court today, who handled the logistics behind the money delivery for the drug shipment Chapo was planning with Pedro Flores. 

Cifuentes is the brother of Jorge Cifuentes, who spent much of last week on the witness stand recounting his experiences with El Chapo and the Sinaloa Cartel. 

Jorge Cifuentes said his brother worked for Chapo when the kingpin lived in the mountains.