El Chapo trial shows why a wall won't stop drugs from crossing the US-Mexico border
January 16, 2019 6.23pm EST
The trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera has exposed just how powerful Mexicos cartels really are.
The trial has now run for two months. On Jan. 15, a Colombian drug trafficker who worked for Guzmáns Sinaloa Cartel from 2007 to 2013 testified that Guzmán paid former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto a $US100 million bribe while he was in power, a charge Peña Nieto office denies.
It was just the latest allegation of the cartels paying off high-ranking politicians in Mexico, presumably to exert influence over the government.
Guzmán is charged with drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping and money laundering crimes he allegedly committed over the past quarter-century as head of the Sinaloa cartel, the Western Hemispheres most powerful organized crime syndicate.
More:
http://theconversation.com/el-chapo-trial-shows-why-a-wall-wont-stop-drugs-from-crossing-the-us-mexico-border-110001