from the i-woudn't-want-to-the-that-it-guy dept.
El Chapo Trial: How a Colombian I.T. Guy Helped U.S. Authorities Take Down the Kingpin
In February 2010, an undercover F.B.I. agent met in a Manhattan hotel with a Colombian info-tech expert who had been the target of a sensitive investigation. The I.T. specialist, Cristian Rodriguez, had recently developed an extraordinary product: an encrypted communications system for Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo.
Posing as a Russian mobster, the undercover agent told Mr. Rodriguez he was interested in acquiring a similar system. He wanted a way — or so he said — to talk with his associates without law enforcement listening in.
So began a remarkable clandestine operation that in a little more than a year allowed the F.B.I. to crack Mr. Guzmán's covert network and ultimately capture as many as 200 digital phone calls of him chatting with his underlings, planning ton-sized drug deals and even discussing illicit payoffs to Mexican officials. The hours of Mr. Guzmán speaking openly about the innermost details of his empire not only represented the most damaging evidence introduced so far at his drug trial in New York, but were also one of the most extensive wiretaps of a criminal defendant since the Mafia boss John Gotti was secretly recorded in the Ravenite Social Club.
[...] In a daring move that placed his life in danger, the I.T. consultant eventually gave the F.B.I. his system's secret encryption keys in 2011 after he had moved the network's servers from Canada to the Netherlands during what he told the cartel's leaders was a routine upgrade.
Previously: Sean Penn Interview Reportedly Led to Capture of Mexican Drug Lord
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On Saturday, Rolling Stone published an interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, a day after he was recaptured by Mexican authorities following his escape from Altiplano prison in July and a months long manhunt. The interview was conducted by actor and filmmaker Sean Penn in October, two weeks before El Chapo narrowly avoided authorities and sustained injuries in Sinaloa state. In Sean Penn's own words:
As an American citizen, I'm drawn to explore what may be inconsistent with the portrayals our government and media brand upon their declared enemies. Not since Osama bin Laden has the pursuit of a fugitive so occupied the public imagination. But unlike bin Laden, who had posed the ludicrous premise that a country's entire population is defined by – and therefore complicit in – its leadership's policies, with the world's most wanted drug lord, are we, the American public, not indeed complicit in what we demonize? We are the consumers, and as such, we are complicit in every murder, and in every corruption of an institution's ability to protect the quality of life for citizens of Mexico and the United States that comes as a result of our insatiable appetite for illicit narcotics.
Now, USA Today reports that El Chapo's desire for film fame may have led to his downfall:
The hard work of Mexican law enforcement, the lure of Hollywood glitz and the fame of iconic actor Sean Penn helped drive the triumphant end to a six-month manhunt for the notorious Mexican drug lord dubbed "El Chapo," Mexican officials said.
[...] The first break in the manhunt came when Guzmán sought out producers and actors for a biographical film about his life, Mexico Attorney General Arely Gomez said. It actually was Guzmán's contacts with Penn that led authorities to a Guzmán hiding place in October, Reuters and other media outlets reported. Guzmán fled, but ultimately was nabbed Friday in Los Mochis, a Mexican coastal city of 250,000 in Guzmán's home state of Sinaloa.
Journalists, the White House, and others have savaged Penn for the interview and his sympathetic portrayal of El Chapo:
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough told CNN: "One thing I will tell you is that this braggadocious action about how much heroin he sends around the world, including the United States, is maddening. We see a heroin epidemic, an opioid addiction epidemic, in this country... But El Chapo's behind bars - that's where he should stay."
The Mexican authorities would not say whether they would investigate Penn and a Mexican actress, Kate del Castillo, who apparently arranged the interview. Mr McDonough declined to answer a question about whether the US would hand Penn over to Mexico for questioning.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:16PM (1 child)
"Hello?"
"Hey, so Mr. Snowden, I was wondering if you might have a place I could crash for a while?"
(Score: 4, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:30PM
He'll be fine. Those drug lords are a pretty forgiving bunch.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:41PM (1 child)
I predict that there is a certain IT guy who is about to really see what a blue screen of death looks like up close and personal.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:39AM
You mean they'd make him use windoze? Talk about a cruel and unusual punishment!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:54PM (4 children)
Let's go, again, over the list of countries who pretend that adding backdoors in consumer-grade encryption is the answer to catching bad guys.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 09 2019, @11:56PM (1 child)
He likely would not have been able to do this without open source software. Ban open source, save lives.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @02:15AM
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday January 10 2019, @12:03AM
Meh. They didn't even need backdoors in this case, the CIA, DEA, and ATF are all the intelligence; the cartels are the operations and enforcement arms -- all are the same business.
They didn't even need pesky NSA hacking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:33AM
He *gave* them the key..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:18AM (3 children)
Don't trust the "IT guy".
Ever.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:25AM (2 children)
They should have given him some good teenage pussy to control and spy on him.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:43AM
Debriefing good teenage pussy: PRICELESS
(Score: 1, Touché) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday January 10 2019, @08:32PM
News Flash: 12 year-old girls are legal in Mexico.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @02:27AM (1 child)
What, there's professional meetups and conventions for organized crime sysadmins? I would have thought someone approaching you out of the blue with pointed questions is an obvious red flag that you have been found out.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday January 10 2019, @05:03PM
Darknet aside (which the average mobster, whatever, might not know about how to use and therefore is irrelevant), the need of others and communication with them is generally the weakness of almost all criminal enterprise. Going to provide secure services which you know will be used for unlawful activity (itself a crime), you have to have customers who know how to find you. Going to do drug deals in the surveillance state? You need to hire technical support to help evade it. (If not tech support, you need security advice...) *Going to steal shit? You need a fence. Going to deal drugs? You need customers, suppliers, and dealers. Name the crime and you likely need to be communicating with someone about it.
This sig for rent.