A witness described chilling details of a ‘murder room’ used by one of the kingpin’s hitmen in El Chapo’s drug trafficking trial.
Edgar Galvan – who claims he was just ‘an average guy’ until he came across the cartel after his divorce – testified that the so-called murder room was sound-proofed and even had a drain to dispose of any mess.
The room was allegedly used by Antonio ‘Jaguar’ Marrufo to kill people and is located somewhere in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, though it’s not known exactly where.
As reported by the New York Post, Marrufo was one of El Chapo’s most trusted hitmen when the Sinaloa drug cartel was in operation.
Galvan told the court everything he knew about the murder room, which was used as a place to execute those who dared to upset or rival the cartel.
He said:
He took me once to a house, where the floor was just white, tiled. That’s where he killed people.
Although it is not known exactly where the murder room is located, or how many people met their end there, Galvan described how a ‘drainage outlet’ on the floor meant messy executions could be cleaned up easily.
It was also sound-proofed to make sure that no one knew about the morbid goings on within the white room, which allegedly saw many murders.
Galvan sombrely told the jurors:
In that house, no one comes out.
As reported by the New York Post, the 41-year-old testified he was just an ‘average guy driving a cab’ until his divorce, after which he discovered the world of the cartel.
In 2007, he met Marrufo; Galvan says initially he was just a ‘party friend’, but things soon escalated and he was soon living in El Paso, Texas, and working for Marrufo – who controlled Juarez for El Chapo’s Sinloa Cartel.
Galvan testified that, under Marrufo, he helped run guns over the border with the intention of ‘cleaning’ Juarez of rival cartels. This meant ‘to kill all of the people’ so El Chapo could take control of the area and its border crossings.
The 41-year-old admitted that he’d never met El Chapo – real name Joaquin Guzman – until his testimony on Monday, saying he only dealt directly with Marrufo.
He denied ever murdering anyone, saying he was twice in possession of a gun as part of a murder plot, but never pulled the trigger.
Galvan was arrested in 2011 and pleaded guilty to charges of possession of narcotics and firearms; he’s currently eight years into a 24-year sentence, he told jurors. Marrufo is jailed in Mexico.
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is currently on trial at Brooklyn Federal Courthouse and is accused of 17 different indictments. He was captured in January 2016 after escaping twice from prisons in Mexico.
Not only is he accused of running an ongoing criminal enterprise, but he is also facing charges of international distribution of drugs, arms possession, money laundering, and conspiracy.
Guzman has pleaded not guilty to the 17-count indictment.
The trial continues.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).