NEENAH — But for the presence of a woman right in front of him in a New York courtroom, Gary Merkling was in direct line for a kiss blown by one of the biggest drug cartel kingpins the world has ever known.
The kiss blown last week by Joaquin Guzman Loera — that's El Chapo, to you and me — was intended for his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, but Merkling, a factory worker from Neenah, was right behind her, and close enough for collateral damage.
Merkling wasn't there for a kiss. Just a glimpse. Merkling is sort of a drug cartel kingpin fanboy, and with Pablo Escobar dead, El Chapo is the kingpinniest of them all.
That's why Merkling took two days off from his job at Sonoco paper mill in Neenah so he could jump on a plane, fly to New York City, rush over to the courthouse in Brooklyn before dawn to be sure of getting a good seat, then head home after hearing about four hours of testimony.
Joaquin Guzman Loera was part of what the New York Times has dubbed the Big Apple's latest attraction: narco-tourism. Forget the Empire State Building and the Christmas tree in the Rockefeller Center, reporter Alan Feuer proclaimed last week; the hot commodity is the El Chapo trial. Dozens of people have been traveling from all over the world to watch bits of the trial, Feuer wrote, including a French scholar, a pair of Lithuanian tourists, a retired Connecticut banker, and Merkling.
"The New York Times guy told me (that) in the first couple weeks of the trial, hundreds showed up, and they only let in 40," Merkling said.
Interest had dwindled after about a month's worth of testimony, so when Merkling went, he was one of about 50 people who showed up, and he was practically first in line. That got him the best seat in the house, right behind the press corps and then behind Mrs. Chapo.
"El Chapo was right there," Merkling said. "He was waving at his wife a lot and blowing kisses to her."
Merkling had been following the trial online as best as he could, Googling it every day, but he had no idea who or what he was going to see in court that day. It turned out to be one of El Chapo's Colombian supply guys. Alleged.
"They were asking him how they met, talking about drug routes, how he gifted El Chapo with a million-dollar helicopter," Merkling said. "He went into really in-depth details about smuggled drugs, how they chartered speedboats to go out on the ocean, and tuna-fishing boats … All behind-the-scenes stuff."
Testimony was all in Spanish but with an interpreter.
The Department of Homeland Security has personnel in place in front of the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse for the start of jury selection in the trial of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, in New York. Guzman was extradited to the United States last year on charges he spent decades commanding the Sinaloa cartel's drug wars, consolidating the market abroad while expanding his empire in Mexico. (Photo: Mark Lennihan / Associated Press)
Outside the courtroom was interesting, too, Merkling said. Federal agents were walking around with bulletproof vests under their suit jackets. Merkling had to pass through two lines of security, give up his cellphone, get up close and personal with drug dogs and sniffing machines. During one of the breaks, he looked out one of the windows of the eighth floor they were on and saw armed SWAT snipers on the roof of the adjoining building.
So what got Merkling so interested in El Chapo, anyway?
"I've always been fascinated," he said. "I had just heard of him when he broke out of prison, I forget, maybe the second time, or whatever, but I just started following him, looking up stuff about him. Once I saw his trial had started, I said it would be crazy to go to that, but I kept looking online to see if it was open to the public."
He was similarly fascinated with Pablo Escobar. A year ago last fall, he sprung for a week's vacation to go to Colombia and tour Escobar's estate.
"I just find it fascinating, the money, the crazy lifestyle," he said. "They say Pablo supplied like 80 percent of all the cocaine in the U.S. One man supplied that? The power and how crazy the money is … I've been interested in Escobar for a long time."
Merkling, who is single, makes it kind of his lifestyle to take quick, random little trips all over, and it's not all about cocaine kingpins.
"I went to Dubai this September, me and a buddy, for a week. The week before I went to New York, I went to North Carolina to watch a Duke basketball game. In November, me and my girlfriend flew to Seattle for the Packer game, and just flew right back."
Otherwise, he works 60 to 70 hours a week, stockpiles his money, and, if something comes up, like a major cocaine conspiracy trial in New York, he can just go.
The New York trip would have cost him just a couple of hundred bucks for airfare, an Uber and room and board for a night, except for a two-day weather layover in Chicago on his way home.
"I had to rent a car, and it cost me $300, basically the cost of the whole trip otherwise," he said. "That sucked. It would have been a nice, cheap trip otherwise."
El Chapo's trial, which began in November, is expected to last several months.
Read or Share this story: https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2019/01/09/cocaine-elchapo-escobar-colombia-newyorktimes-sonoco/2485975002/
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario