Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán pled not guilty in a U.S. federal court in New York City. His attorneys had fought his extradition in part by citing discrimination against Mexicans. His court appearance came just one day after his extradition from Mexico and he is being held without bail. Guzman, 59, arrived at Long Island’s MacArthur Airport Thursday night after being taken from prison in the city of Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua, where his Sinaloa cartel rules.
He is accused of running the world’s largest drug-trafficking organization. There are 17 criminal charges against him, carrying a minimum sentence of life behind bars. Guzman is accused of money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in several US cities, including Chicago, Miami and New York. Charged in a total of six U.S. jurisdictions, Guzman will faced his first set of charges in Brooklyn on a combined indictment from New York and Florida.
While leading the Sinaloa cartel, Guzman is believed to have been running the world’s largest transnational cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine smuggling operation. More than 100,000 people have been killed during a decade-long drug war in Mexico. A U.S. attorney says the government is seeking a $14 billion forfeiture order as part of its prosecution of the notorious Mexican drug kingpin.
According to his indictment and court filings, Guzman grew and sold poppies for heroin as a young boy. His drug trafficking career that began in the 1980s and he came to dominate Mexican smugglers by the speed with which he was able to move drugs into the United States.
After partnering with Colombian producers, they shared in profits of U.S. distribution markets, moving cocaine and other drugs through tunnels under the U.S. border as well as planes, yachts and even a submarine, employing a crew of violent hit men known as“sicarios” and corrupting Mexican officials.
The indictment charges Guzman with running the massive drug trafficking operation that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings. Prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty as a condition of the extradition of Guzman, who’s the convicted leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
Guzman had maintained control and expanded his drug trafficking empire through two prison terms in Mexico. He has escaped twice from a maximum security prison in Mexico, once in a laundry cart and a second time in 2015, through a mile-long tunnel dug into the shower in his cell. He was captured a year ago, just six months after his last escape. Mexican officials say a secret interview with US actor Sean Penn helped locate the world’s most wanted drug baron. US officials have refused to say where El Chapo will be held while awaiting trial, but they vowed to prevent any further escapes.
US attorney for New York’s Eastern District, Robert Capers, told reporters the trial will likely be long and that more than 40 witnesses were ready to testify. US prosecutors assured Mexican officials that El Chapo would not be executed in order to secure his extradition, Capers said. Mexico opposes capital punishment. “Guzman and the Sinaloa cartel had a veritable army, ready to war with competitors and anyone Guzman deemed to be a traitor,” US prosecutors said. He was known to carry a gold-plated AK-47 rifle.
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President Obama has commuted more sentences than any other president in U.S. History. He recently commuted the sentence of some high profile prisoners. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera and retired U.S. Marine Corps General James Cartwright had their sentences commuted as part of more than 200 commutations issued on January 17th.
Chelsea Manning is now set to be freed on May 17, after Obama shortened her sentence from 35 years to seven. Manning is already the longest-held whistleblower in U.S. history. Manning leaked more than 700,000 classified files and videos to WikiLeaks about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. foreign policy. While serving her sentence she has seen long stretches of solitary confinement and has been denied medical treatment related to her gender identity. She attempted to commit suicide twice last year.
Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera has been imprisoned for almost 35 years with a lot of that time served in solitary confinement. In 1981, López Rivera was convicted on federal charges including seditious conspiracy—conspiring to oppose U.S. authority over Puerto Rico by force. In 1999, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of the FALN, but López Rivera refused to accept the deal because it did not include two fellow activists, who have since been released. Under Obama’s commutation order, López Rivera will be released on May 17th as well.
U.S. Marine Corps General James Cartwright also received a pardon. Last year, Cartwright, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general with 40 years of service behind him, admitted that he lied to the FBI during an investigation into who leaked classified information to a New York Times reporter. The top secret information leaked, was about Stuxnet, a secret U.S. cyberwarfare operation against Iran. He was due to be sentenced this month. Cartwright’s defense team had asked for a year of probation and 600 hours of community service, but prosecutors had asked the judge overseeing his case to send him to prison for two years.
President Obama granted another 330 commutations on the last day of his presidency, January 19th. The majority of the sentences commuted Thursday were for nonviolent drug offenses. Throughout his presidency, Obama has granted 1,715 commutations—more than any other president in U.S. history. Of those, 568 inmates had been sentenced to life in prison.
In Obama’s second-term, he had made great effort to try to remedy the consequences of decades of excessive sentencing requirements that he said had imprisoned thousands of non-violent drug offenders for too long. To be eligible for a commutation under Obama’s initiative, non-violent offenders had to have been well behaved while in prison and already served 10 years, although some exceptions to the 10-year rule were granted.
Obama personally reviewed the case of every inmate who received a commutation. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said the administration reviewed all applications that came in by an end-of-August deadline which was more than 16,000 in total.
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In an effort to broaden the company’s “social interaction” with our clients and FaceBook fans, Daily Trivia Questions are posted on both of our business pages. Here are the weekly standings for this past week, and the winner of the Sunday night Weekly Drawing for an AmEx gift card!
Congratulations – To this past week’s Trivia Contest Winner!! Our latest contest winner for the weekly FaceBook HealthInsurance4Everyone/Health & Life Solutions, LLC Trivia Contest, drawn randomly by computer late Sunday evening, January 22nd, 2017 was:
KRISTINA ROSSON
Winner Of A $25.00 AmEx Gift Card
Each day, fans of either of our company FaceBook pages (HealthInsurance4Everyone or Health & Life Solutions LLC) are able to test their skills with our Daily TRIVIA QUESTION. The first 20 winners who post the correct answer to the TRIVIA QUESTION, will then get entered into the weekly drawing held late on Sunday evenings for a $25.00 Am Ex Gift. Card
Weekly Gift Card winners will be posted in our blog at this site. Remember to become a FaceBook “fan” on either of our company pages to enter and post your answers.
Here are the daily contestants from last week’s Trivia Contest that were entered into the Sunday drawing:
1/16/17
Lotorya Patrick
Sandy Nevels
Sheila Carvell
Nitasha Shank
Alicia Dansby
Adaria Johnson
Holly Cajigas
Marcy Coull
Brandy Marie Willaims
Christine McKinnon
Brittany Deaver
Jade Good
Dean Bruss
Katrina Worford
Jennifer Sparks
Cheryl Hall
Stacy Draeger-Brogan
Michelle Rayeske-Jeske
Fanny Wat
Paula Rousseau
Kendra George
1/17/17
Jessica Miller
Misty Shallcross
Alicia Dansby
Kimberly Snyder
Lisa Jimenez
Lesa Moats
Lori Capobianco
Megan Akins
Derek Jennings
Mary Ann Cody
Wendi Black
Phyllis Hines
Megan Akins
Amy Marie Wilkinson
Holly Cajigas
Michelle Hughes
Alexandria Tinnon
Sheila Carvell
Jennifer Fremont
Jennifer Ramlet
Andrea Workman
Kathleen Hickman
Anna Nichols
1/18/17
Shelby Howke
Pamela White Brearley
Amy Marie Wilkinson
Dale Fish
Steve Hardy
Cassandra L Penley
Raquel Munoz Navarro
Judy Custer
Lesa Moats
Mya Murphy
Jennifer Downing
Brandi Chaney
Amy Hopper
Mya Murphy
Marie Beauregard
Melissa Ann Stura-Bassett
Chrissy Kim
Jade Good
Kristina Harris
Abby Cox
1/19/17
Christine Acoba
Katrina Worford
Beata Tybor
Brett J. Griffith
Laurie Griffith
AmValerie Kuehn
Crystal Hazelwood
Sheila Carvell
Kimberly Snyder
Brittany Deaver
Susanne Killion
Juanita Williams-Jones
Joanie Waterman
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Heather Jacques
Steve Hardy
Phyllis Hines
Brandi Chaney
Priscilla Shimp
Megan Rhyne
1/20/17
Anna Nichols
Jennifer Alice Duran
Christy Hawkes
Megan Rhyne
Kristin Yergey
Gino Nino
Jade Good
Chaunda Zeller
Amy Chavis
Juanita Williams-Jones
Sarah Bellestri Shih
Kathleen Hickman
Amy Marie Wilkinson
Tessa Davis
Lesa Moats
Jennifer Saavedra
Kayla Clemons
Leigh Nichols
Derek Jennings
Brandy Marie Williams
Kendra George
Amy Hopper
1/21/17
Kizzy Alvarez DeSantis
Kendra George
Ralph Gonzales
Lori Capobianco
Nikki Bankert
Dawn Raasch
Luis Vazquez
Paula Rousseau
Amy Hopper
Nitasha Shank
Brandy Marie Williams
Fanny Wat
Jane Peterson
Emily Rice Bowersock
Wayne Gallas
Samantha Brwn
Derek Jennings
Nai Merri
Mikayla Oakes
Anna Nichols
1/22/17
Andrea Timms
Althea Thomas
Kim Floyd
Kristina Rosson
Nicole Matusevich
Beth Cleveland
Carole Jacobs
Priscilla Shimp
Hollie Jahnke
Kiki Roberson
Cheryl Reagin Burns
Joanie Waterman
Lisa David Carr
Crystal Young
Sarah Bellestri Shih
Kristina Harris
Alexandra Vindiola
Jennifer Downing
Beeg Reeb
Brian K Henson
Be sure to watch both of our FaceBook pages for your chance to win and enter again next week, with questions posted daily on HealthInsurance4Everyone or at Health & Life Solutions, LLC!!
Remember that if you try your hand at answering the Trivia Question several days each week, your odds of winning the Sunday weekly drawing are much better. You may also find that if you “Like” both of the business pages, you will receive faster notifications of the other players as they post their answers to compete with you!
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At Health Insurance 4 Everyone, we not only want to improve our customer service but also interact with our customers on a social media level that wasn’t available before. Interested in connecting with us? Look us up on….
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