El Chapo allegedly had cartel leader’s brother killed over handshake diss

A New York court has heard gruesome new details of El Chapo’s savagery, while a trial witness is reportedly set to make sensational claims the drug lord paid hush money to Mexico’s president.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is on trial in New York. Picture: Reuters

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman once had the brother of a leader of an allied cartel killed because he didn’t shake his hand — a hit that sparked a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez enterprises, a witness testified in Brooklyn court Monday.

The drug lord and head of the world’s most powerful cartel felt disrespected after his 2004 meeting with Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, whose brother Vicente Carrillo Fuentes ran the Juarez cartel, said former cartel member-turned-witness Jesus “El Rey” Zambada.

“When [Rodolfo] left, Chapo gave him his hand and said, ‘See you later, friend,’ and Rodolfo just left him standing there with his hand extended,” Zambada told the jurors.

Zambada has been testifying at Guzman’s drug-trafficking trial since last week.

Mexican Navy soldiers with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman not long after his capture in 2014. Picture: Getty Images

He recalled how his brother and Guzman’s alleged right-hand man, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, told him after the snub, “Mi compa Chapo is very upset.”

“He said Chapo said he is going to kill him because he couldn’t take Rodolfo anymore.”

Fuentes was murdered that year at Guzman’s behest, causing the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels, which up until that point had formed an alliance, to fall out, Zambada said.

Vicente then had Guzman’s younger brother, Arturo Guzman Loera, killed in retaliation in late 2004 — prompting an all-out turf war between the two Mexican cartels.

Meanwhile, Zambada also testified that he was ordered to pay $US250,000 ($A340,000) in bribes to the Mexican military, which sought to capture Guzman while he was on the run between 2001 and 2014.

A sketch artist depicts Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in a New York court last week. Picture: AP

A lieutenant colonel in the military demanded “$250,000, and if we don’t do that, they’re going to capture him,” Zambada recalled telling his brother.

The money was paid and “the operation was aborted,” he added.

As a thankyou, Guzman invited Zambada and his wife to breakfast at his sprawling hide-out in the pine trees of the remote Sinaloa mountains, the witness said.

Guzman boasted about his obsession with guns — including his Bazooka, AK-47s and his favourite, a blinged-out .38-caliber pistol engraved with his initials, Zambada said.

“On the handle were diamonds,” he said.

Jesus "El Rey" Zambada is testifying against his former colleague. Picture: AFP

During his testimony, Zambada is also expected to reveal Guzman also allegedly paid at least $US6 million ($A8 million) in hush money to the president of Mexico so that the Sinaloa Cartel could continue moving drugs through Mexico City, according to court transcripts made public last week.

President Enrique Peña Nieto, who has categorically denied taking the bribes, is just one of many officials Zambada has accused of accepting cartel funds, reports the New York Post.

Mr Zambada estimated that he had paid around $US300,000 ($A410,000) a month to other public officials in Mexico City in order to keep them in the cartel’s pocket.

“One of my activities was to corrupt authorities,” said the accountant, whose older brother is Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, Chapo’s business partner.

El Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, has been a regular in court. Picture: AFP

In 2004, Mr Zambada said, Guzman told him to visit a general and “give him a hug” — and a $US100,000 ($A136,000) payment.

The government witness also explained that he declined to let Guzman stay at his ranch alone with his hitmen following his 2001 prison escape, when a corrections officer nicknamed “Chito” rolled Guzman out of the pen in a laundry cart.

EL CHAPO’S DRUG RIVAL DEAD

Héctor Beltrán Leyva, a notorious Mexican drug lord who once took part in waging a turf war against jailed Guzman, has died after suffering a heart attack, Mexican authorities said. He was 56.

According to Fox News, Beltran Leyva was transferred from Federal Prison Number 1 — a maximum security facility in Altiplano, Mexico, where he had been behind bars since March 2016 — to a hospital in Toluca after officials noticed he was suffering chest pains.

“At all times, Beltran Leyva … received the medical attention he required and that the staff of the hospital as well as the federal centre, exhausted all the clinical resources at its disposal,” authorities said in a statement.

El Chapo’s alleged cartel rival Hector Beltran Leyva has died in a Mexican prison. Picture: AP

Beltran Leyva, nicknamed “the H,” was disguising himself as an art dealer when Mexican authorities captured the drug lord in 2014.

He was facing charges of trafficking marijuana, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines. His two other brothers were also arrested.

Beltran Leyva and his brothers built a cartel that controlled many of the drug smuggling routes from Mexico into the US. He took over the family cartel in 2009 after his brother died in a shootout with police, the BBC reported.

The Beltran Leyva brothers were also once allies with Guzman until their relationship soured in 2008, initiating a bloody turf war with the Sinaloa cartel.

An ambulance carrying the remains of Hector Beltran Leyva, leader of the Beltran Leyva's drug cartel, leaves the prison where he died. Picture: AFP

— with the New York Post