Alias ​​Chupeta was freed after an agreement in the United States: he testified against El Chapo Guzmán

The Colombian drug trafficker Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, alias Chupeta, was released after reaching an agreement with the United States justice system. There he was serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Alias ​​Chupeta is the former leader of the North Valley cartel and a key witness in the trial against the Mexican kingpin Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo” Guzmán, with whom he had business. At 61 years old, he was confined in a prison for homicide, drug trafficking, integration of a criminal network and money laundering.

The Brooklyn Court in New York, United States, handed down a sentence against alias Chupeta in August 2023. In that sentence, he was recognized for the time he had already served in the United States, since he was extradited, That is, those 20 years began to run in 2008.

According to information collected by El Tiempo, alias Chupeta would have been released in October. After joining a witness program, the man was located in a secure sector in the United States and his identity changed.

In addition, Chupeta was able to include his family in the program, who moved to the United States, changed their identity and is in a protected area.

The agreement that the drug trafficker made was made through his lawyers in the United States. The proposal of the then prisoner was to deliver exclusive and highly important information about Chapo Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

“He managed to be a super witness, and apparently he demonstrated it, against Chapo Guzmán; the information he provided referred to his beginnings alongside Héctor Luis Palma, in the nineties, when the cartel had control of coca from Cali and the north of the Valley,” judicial sources told El Tiempo.

Everything would indicate that the information provided by Chupeta to the United States justice system was crucial for the conviction of Chapo Guzmán. Data from meetings, partners, routes and others allowed the Mexican kingpin to be sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.

Within the agreement, Chupeta had to commit to putting aside all illegal businesses and not committing crimes again. Otherwise, the United States Department of Justice would not agree to grant him the benefit.

Alias ​​Chupeta was responsible for the trafficking of at least 500 tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States, valued at about 10,000 million dollars. He was also accused of ordering some 150 homicides.

The criminal was also recognized for having had multiple plastic surgeries, at least three of them, to change their appearance while he was a fugitive from justice.