El Chapo Trial: Former mistress Lucero Sanchez takes the stand against Chapo

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

Chapo ran naked in the sewer to escape capture

Pregnant Lucero visits Chapo in prison

On of Chapo’s mistresses took the stand Thursday to testify as a cooperative witness.

She says that That February 17, 2014, when Joaquín "El Chapo " Guzmán managed to escape minutes before the sailors raided the house where he lived in Culiacán.

Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López, former congresswoman and the mother of his Chapo’s child, who fled from her side that day, detailed his escape in her testimony. The affair began in 2011 when Lucero was 21, when Emma was pregnant with the twins.

Naked and afraid--the sewer escape

On the day of the bathtub tunnel escape, Lucero fled with Chapo from one safe house to another she had not been to before.

Around 4AM she was awaken by a loud thump and yelling as Mexican marines using a battering ram on the front door.

According to Sanchez’ testimony, Chapo was still in bed with her when his secretary burst into the room with an urgent message: The Navy had arrived to capture him.

Lucero was terrified. Chapo and his secretary El Condor are frantic. Chapo goes into the bathroom and calls for her—"'Love, love, come in here” ---Chapo, naked, ran to the bathroom, where he lifted the lid of the bathtub to show a staircase leading to a tunnel, where he disappeared with his companion, one of his workers and a cleaning lady before the sailors crashed through the steel door.

They were still naked as they escape through the filthy sewer tunnel. It was hot and humid inside. Lucero could feel the filthy water running up her legs.  Sanchez said she was traumatized and estimated being inside the sewer for more than an hour.

Sanchez narrated this episode a part of her story of their relationship that only ended when she attempted to cross into the U.S. and was arrested.  During this time, she was both his lover and his criminal accomplice, buying kilos of marijuana for him, organizing his companies that worked as a screen and even attending to his personal needs.

Sanchez was arrested in 2017 while trying to cross the border into the United States. In 2018 she pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, cut a plea deal and is awaiting sentencing.

The "narco-diputada", she was a congresswoman or deputy as referred to in Mexico, for 3 years.  supposedly started in the business for “love”, as Chapo, sent her to the area of ​​the Golden Triangle, in the mountains of Durango, to buy marijuana for him, since she had lived in that region and was equipped with facilities to do so.

Chapo’s work order to Sanchez was to send him “3B” quality drugs, “good beautiful and cheap”.

However, she testified, she disobeyed the order and began sending marijuana that contained seed, which is poor quality.

"I wanted him to be upset with me and send for me, but he didn’t," she said.

Sanchez visits Chapo in Altiplano, using false identification 

Sanchez Lopez, was grilled, with respect to charges that she entered,  Federal Social Rehabilitation Center (prison)  No. 1, 'Altiplano',  using falsified documents to visit Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in 2014. The attorney general’s office confirmed the deputy was brought to the office of the Special Attorney for the investigation of Organized Crime. In the foto above she is holding false identification and documents at the prison.  She was pregnant at the time.  She denied it was her, but Chapo’s attorney confirmed it was her and he accompanied her.  He said on that particular visit she was there to discuss where their son would be born and other financial matters.

Sanchez quickly resigned, in front of the Sinaloa congress.  A few hours later, she was apprehended by federal police and transferred to Mexico City, where she was held for 2 days, but was not charged.

Sanchez was the deputy of Cosalá , Sinaloa. While Chapo was on the lam, Cosalá  is one of the first places that Chapo was known to have been hiding.  When located at a Cosalá Ranch, the Mexican Navy moved in for the capture and ensued in an intense shootout.  Mexican authorities reported that they had Chapo in their sight but held back from shooting because he was with a small girl.  They also report that Chapo sustained injuries as he fled on an ATV.

Attorney General Arley Gomez told reporters that they knew Chapo spent much of his time in freedom with Sanchez including New Years Eve.

The situation with Chapo, the mistress and the “wife” all in the same courtroom was awkward at best.  Sanchez appeared nervous with a prominent facial tick, Chapo did not look at her, and Emma stared straight ahead while looking for those split ends.

At one-point Sanchez began crying while still on break, Judge Cogan extended break for another five minutes so that she could compose herself. 

The killing of Juancho

Sanchez was with Chapo when he received the news of his cousin Juncho’s death.  She says she felt very uncomfortable at his reaction.

At first, he did not react, then he looked at her seriously and said words that were chilling to her;  

“from that point on, whoever betrayed him was going to die, whether they were family or women." 

Prosecutors have described El Chapo as “bloodthirsty, even killing family members”.  That may or may not be true, use this hyperlinkto access the this is the story which begins in 2010.

The family member is the cousin of El Chapo, Juan Guzman Rocha aka Juancho.  He was a Sinaloa Cartel enforcer working in the Los Antrax group.

Juancho is on the list of those prosecutors say Chapo conspired to kill-below

Click image to enlarge

Sanchez will resume testimony when court resumes on Tuesday