‘El Chapo’ Paid Former Mexican President $100 Million Bribe: Trial Witness

(L) Mexico's outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto waves while arriving to the Congress on Dec. 1, 2018. (Carlos Jasso/Reuters) (R) Defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman (1st L) cross examines Alex Cifuentes, a close associate of the accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (not shown) in this courtroom sketch in Brooklyn federal court in New York, U.S., January 15, 2019. Reuters/Jane Rosenberg

Accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman once paid a $100 million bribe to former Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, a former associate testified Jan. 16 that he had previously told U.S. authorities.

Alex Cifuentes, who has described himself as Guzman’s onetime right-hand man, discussed the alleged bribe under cross-examination by one of Guzman’s lawyers in Brooklyn federal court. Asked if he told authorities in 2016 that Guzman arranged the bribe, he answered, “That’s right.”