El Chapo was co-leader, informant tells US trial

Drug baron Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman co-headed the Sinaloa cartel, an informant told his US trial Wednesday, skewering defense claims that he was little more than a scapegoat and spilling the operational secrets of the criminal enterprise.

Jesus “El Rey” Zambada, brother of still-at-large co-defendant Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, was one of the first witnesses to take the stand on the second day of what is expected to be a more than four-month trial.

In US custody since 2008, he testified at length about the import-export business of the Sinaloa, which rose to prominence after 1997, when Colombia changed the law, allowing its citizens to be extradited to the United States.