By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
When the FBI couldn’t crack the Sinaloa cartel’s encrypted messages, agents did the next best thing: They went after the tech guru who built the sophisticated communications system.
Cristian Rodriguez began cooperating with the feds in 2011, handing them the encryption key to listen to about 800 calls from members of the most notorious Mexican drug cartel.
On Tuesday, prosecutors played excerpts from what they described as incriminating phone calls that were tapped between July 2011 and January 2012. Jurors heard the calls during the trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the alleged Sinaloa kingpin, The New York Times reports.
The elusive El Chapo was captured by a recording device between 100 and 200 times. In many of the calls, Guzman could be heard orchestrating cocaine sales and speaking to corrupt cops.
The trial resumes Wednesday.
