New York (AFP) – Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s defense began opening statements Tuesday in his New York drugs trial, alleging that the Sinaloa cartel bribed the current and former presidents of Mexico.

Guzman’s co-defendant who remains at large, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, bribed everybody, lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman told the Brooklyn federal court “including the very top, the current president of Mexico and the former.”