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I have written many articles over the years, but I have never written an article more important than this one. While Democrat and Republican leaders in Washington are polarized and in gridlock over how to pay for a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is a Lone Ranger with a Tonto-sized idea riding into town to get the job done in a way that would cost taxpayers nothing at all.
Because I live in the border state of Texas, it has made this issue even more personal to me. I also have many black belts that live in Mexico that are hindered by this crisis to even be able to visit the U.S. legally in order to attend our annual United Fighting Arts Federation (UFAF) Convention in Las Vegas.
On Thursday, a press release went out from Sen. Cruzs office that was titled: Sen. Cruz Reintroduces EL CHAPO Act.
EL CHAPO is the nickname (Shorty) for the infamous Mexican mafia kingpin who is the former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel and was extradited to the U.S. to face criminal prosecution for numerous drug-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder and money laundering. He is presently on trial in New York for all these charges, where the son of the cartels co-founder just testified for hours against the drug lord.
EL CHAPO is also an acrostic for Sen. Cruzs bill that stands for the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order (EL CHAPO) Act. The full bill text may be viewed here
The PR explained: The bill would reserve any amounts forfeited to the U.S. Government as a result of the criminal prosecution of El Chapo (formally named Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Lorea) and other drug lords for border security assets and the completion of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Sally Q. Yates, who served as U.S. Attorney General (2017) and U.S. Deputy Attorney General (20152017) during El Chapos capture, explained: Guzmán Loera is the alleged leader of a multi-billion dollar, multi-national criminal enterprise that funneled drugs onto our streets and violence and misery into our communities.
If you didnt know, El Chapo is almost entirely responsible for the majority of drugs that come up through the U.S. southern border. As the co-founder and head of the Sinaloa Cartel, he is the #1 supplier of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines into the U.S. If you or your loved ones have ever tried or been addicted to illegal drugs, odds are they originated from the Sinaloa Cartel.
Consider that in just four shipments of drugs, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Fels said in his opening argument that El Chapo had sent more than a line of cocaine for every single person in the United States. That amounts to over 328 million lines of cocaine in just four shipments.
Consider the proliferation of El Chapos drug industry in communities across the U.S. compared to other cartels through this colored map:
image: https://www.wnd.com/files/2019/01/El-Chapo%E2%80%99s-drug-industry-in-communities-across-U.S.-2.jpg
Time magazine summarized: [El Chapos cartel carnage] has left a trail of victims to rival any conventional war. In the U.S., there were more than 15,000 heroin-related deaths in 2016, a fivefold increase since 2010. In Mexico, the clash between rival cartels fighting one another and security forces over billion-dollar trafficking routes and other rackets is estimated to have killed more than 119,000 people over a decade. If the war on drugs were classified as a military conflict, it would be one of the worlds deadliest.
That is why the U.S. government is presently pursuing the criminal forfeiture of more than $14 billion from El Chapos narcotic sales and other illicit profits.
So, does El Chapo have the money to fund our U.S. southern border wall?
Dolia Estevez, who covers Mexicos billionaires, politics and U.S.-Mexico relations, wrote in Forbes: The 33-page indictment against El Chapo, filed in 2016 at the U.S. Eastern District of New York, does not dissect the $14 billion. It simply says that upon conviction, the U.S. will seek forfeiture of any property or contractual rights derived from the continuing criminal enterprise, including but not limited to at least approximately a sum of money equal to $14 billion in United States currency.'
But David Gaddis, a former chief of enforcement operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), explained that the $14 billion is a cumulative figure and based on his drug trafficking enterprise. Gaddis said that between DEA and the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), many companies associated with it are implicated in the money laundering aspect and will be targeted.
In 2011, El Chapo was ranked the 10th-richest man in Mexico and 1,140th in the world, with a personal net worth of roughly $1 billion. However, as head of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international criminal organization with billions of dollars in revenues that are laundered through over 288 companies and a shipping and transport empire to traffic drugs, El Chapo still has access to astronomical amounts of money from a plethora of illegal resources. The fact is, $14 billion is chump change from that El chumpo!
What would $14 billion of El Chapos dirty money get us? Even CNN had to confess that a concrete slab that stretched the full length of the border and was 25 feet high (five feet underground and 20 feet above it) and steel reinforced would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $12 billion dollars and could be completed during a single term of a president. So, Washington would have $2 billion leftover from El Chapos money for border personnel, drones and other electronic surveillance and securities.
Is Sen. Cruzs EL CHAPO Act not a brilliant idea to fund the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico? And guess what? A Mexican pays for it after all one evil hombre who has repeatedly raped Americas communities and the souls of precious millions through narcotics and other criminalities for the past three decades.
Think of the impact passing the EL CHAPO Act could have. First, El Chapos drug monies could fund the completion of the entire U.S. southern border wall. Second, simultaneously the majority of El Chapos own drug trafficking into our country would be greatly diminished using his own monies. Third, president Trump could fulfill his primary campaign promise. Fourth, the Democrats would be able to open their government the same day the EL CHAPO Act passed.
Let it be clear: Passing that single bill could be the compromise they all are looking for, and it is the best win-win-win-win solution the Congress and president could ever enact!
Congress has a clear mandate from the American people: secure the border and build the wall, Sen. Cruz said. Ensuring the safety and security of Texans is one of my top priorities. Indeed, I have long called for building a wall as a necessary step in defending our border. Fourteen billion dollars will go a long way to secure our southern border, and hinder the illegal flow of drugs, weapons, and individuals. By leveraging any criminally forfeited assets of El Chapo and other murderous drug lords, we can offset the cost of securing our border and make meaningful progress toward delivering on the promises made to the American people.
But Sen. Cruz and I need your help before the EL CHAPO Act becomes the most overlooked solution and government missed opportunity in decades to unify our country, bolster our borders, diminish the drug trade and save the lives and families of millions of Americans.
Please, please take a moment right now to share this article on all your social media and contact your U.S. Representatives, U.S. Senators, and email or call president Trump to entreat them all to support and pass Sen. Cruzs EL CHAPO Act ASAP.
The go fund me guy went to DC to collect it! That's funny, don't care who you are, that's funny.
