From mountain hideouts, ‘El Chapo’ moved drugs and oversaw a film script, witness says

A who’s who of former Sinaloa cartel chiefs have become cooperating witnesses in the sprawling drug-trafficking case against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Cifuentes, a member of a powerful Colombian drug-trafficking family that partnered with Guzman, testified Monday in federal court that he lived with the drug kingpin in variety of “humble pine huts” from 2007 until 2009 so that he could “guarantee” Guzman was sending the right amount of money back to Colombia for the cocaine, heroin and meth they were providing. Describing himself as Guzman’s “right-hand man and his left-hand man,” Cifuentes said he was essentially one of Guzman’s “secretaries” with duties such as coordinating shipments of tons of cocaine and other drugs to New York, Los Angeles and Phoenix — as well as to Canada. Guzman wanted to send drugs across Lake Champlain into Canada via boats; he was also looking to find a ranch with an airstrip in the country to make shipments easier by using aircraft, Cifuentes testified. Cifuentes said Guzman did not want to be woken in the middle of the night — but if he had to be, Guzman told the guard he only needed five minutes’ notice.