Ovidio Guzman's Trial To Be Sealed
The United States Department of Justice (USDOJ), had begun to gather evidence against Ovidio Guzmán López, el Ratón, years before his extradition, however, all the evidence gathered by DEA agents to incriminate the drug trafficker will not be disclosed as in other trials, but will be destroyed once it is reviewed by the defense.
"It will be like a closed-door trial, with the difference that there will be access to family members or the general public, but the evidence will never be seen," said sources familiar with the case.
According to a court order signed by Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, all evidence that comes to the defense, including photos, videos, audio of calls, photos of text conversations, and seized drugs, will be subject to a protective order and will be delivered before and after each hearing to the defendant's lawyers, and with the exception of official documents that the court maintains as official, this evidence will be subsequently eliminated.
Jeffrey Lichtman has said that his defendant is encouraged and determined to confront the U.S. government since he considers that there is not enough evidence against him, but that everything is based on the testimonies of protected witnesses, although for the U.S. those testimonies should be enough to put him away for the rest of his life.
As a result first of Ovidio's arrest, and then after a series of operations that the USDOJ announced to go against his brothers, the Los Chapitos cartel, as some security analysts identify them today, people associated with the Guzmán brothers began to place narco mantas in Culiacán, Caborca, and Sonoyta, prohibiting the production and trafficking of fentanyl in territories controlled by them.
The prohibition would have been a consequence of the announcements made by the US government, although, in the opinion of security analysts, the measure is considered "very innocent", since it is evident that the DEA wants and it will only be a matter of time before it arrests all the Guzmán brothers.
Guzmán López is currently being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center prison in Chicago, awaiting an eventual trial.
