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“Many times I would stash it so that way the price would go up because there would be less cocaine in the streets. Then I would put my cocaine out and have bigger profits.”
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Cocaine turned out to be Chupeta’s calling. He testified that he moved over 40,000 tons of the drug into the U.S. over the years, usually in concert with the Sinaloa cartel. They used a dizzying array of smuggling methods: planes, tunnels, trains, tractor trailers, fishing boats, speed boats, and cars with hidden compartments. He took credit for being the first Colombian trafficker to use a submarine to send a load of cocaine to Mexico. He even claimed that he directly influenced the price of cocaine in New York City.“Many times I would stash it so that way the price would go up because there would be less cocaine in the streets,” he said. “Then I would put my cocaine out and have bigger profits.”He seemed to pride himself on his acumen for the drug business. He always referred to his merchandise as “my cocaine” and boasted that his product was “always of optimum quality.” He testified that he started working with El Chapo in the early ‘90s “because at that time he was the best and the quickest” at crossing loads over the border into the U.S.“We had control over these people. We knew where they lived, so they would be responsible if something was lost.”
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