Tag Archives: EL CHAPO

Mexcian drug-lord, El Chapo’s health deteriorating in US custody.

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The health of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, one of the world’s most notorious criminals, is deteriorating in US custody, his lawyers complained Monday, challenging the conditions of his detention.

The 59-year-old, accused of running one of the world’s biggest drug empires and who escaped twice from prison in Mexico, has been held in solitary confinement in New York since being extradited on January 19.

His isolation at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan has seen his “physical and mental health” deteriorate, wrote his American public defenders in a 24-page letter to the judge overseeing his case.

“He has recently been experiencing auditory hallucinations, complaining of hearing music in his cell even when his radio is turned off.”

His lawyers asked Judge Brian Cogan that Guzman be allowed to speak to his wife, either by person or by telephone, and be released from solitary confinement and placed in the general prison population.

Amnesty International has previously condemned conditions at the unit where he is being housed as “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and incompatible with the presumption of innocence,” the letter said.

It is not the first time his legal team has complained about the draconian conditions of his incarceration.

They did so at a court hearing in Brooklyn on February 3, when Cogan declined to intervene at the time, saying it was up to the jail.

US authorities are adamant that Guzman will have no chance of freedom.

The letter said Guzman was confined to “a small windowless cell” where he remains alone, except for an hour of solitary exercise in another cell with a treadmill and stationary bicycle Monday to Friday.

His meals are passed through a slot in the door and the light is always on, it said.

Guzman shivers from a lack of warm clothing and never goes outside, the lawyers added.

On January 20 Guzman pleaded not guilty to a raft of firearms, drug trafficking and conspiracy charges at an initial hearing in New York.

If he stands trial and is convicted, he is likely to spend the rest of his life in a maximum security US prison.

Prosecutors are also seeking to obtain a $14 billion criminal forfeiture order against him.

 

Source: AFP

Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Extradited to U.S.

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Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been extradited to the United States, Mexico’s government said Thursday.

Mexico’s Department of Foreign Relations announced Guzman was handed over to U.S. authorities for transportation to the U.S.

“El Chapo” Guzman, who twice escaped from maximum-security prisons in his country, was extradited at the request of the United States to face drug trafficking and other charges.

Guzman, the convicted leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organizations, was expected to make his first appearance in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Friday, officials said.

Guzman was taken into custody by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Ciudad Juarez, a border town across from El Paso, Texas.

Guzman, who is in his late 50s, first escaped from prison in 2001 and then spent more than a decade on the run before he was recaptured, only to escape again in 2015 via a mile-long tunnel dug to the shower in his cell.

The 2015 escape was highly embarrassing for the government of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, and Mexican officials were seen as eager to hand the headache off to the United States afterward.

A court denied Guzman’s appeal and found his extradition was constitutional, the Mexican Department of Foreign Relations said.

In Mexico, Deputy Attorney General Alberto Elias Beltran told reporters late Thursday that Guzman still faces formal charges in 10 other cases.

“When he completes his sentence in … the United States, he will return to Mexico to continue” the prosecution said.

 

Source: Premium Times

Judge Presiding Over ‘El Chapo’s’ Case Shot, Killed While Jogging Outside Home

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The judge who presided over Sinaloa Cartel drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s case was shot in the head while jogging outside of his home Monday near Mexico City, according to media reports.

Judge Vicente Bermudez Zacarias, 37, was the judge presiding over Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s case, according to SDP Noticias. Zacarias lived in Metepec, which is 45 miles west of Mexico City.

 

SDP Noticias reported that the person who shot Zacarias fled the scene. Zacarias later died at the hospital in Metepec.

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    Mexican army soldiers escort drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to a helicopter to be transported to a maximum security prison at Mexicos Attorney Generals hangar, in Mexico City, on Jan. 8. Photo: Eduardo Verdugo /Associated Press / AP

Photo: Eduardo Verdugo /Associated Press
 
 
According to Tristan Reed, Mexico Security Analyst for Stratfor Global Intelligence firm, there is no reason for El Chapo to go after Trump whom Reed called a “well known, wealthy figure in another country,” as it would cause unwanted attention from law enforcement. Despite reports from Daily Mail, Reed indicated that there is no truth to these rumors.
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Mexican army soldiers escort drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to a helicopter to be transported to a maximum security prison at Mexicos Attorney Generals hangar, in Mexico City, on Jan. 8.
 

The Mexico City newspaper reported that the judge was not given any protection while presiding over cases of drug lords like Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, leader of Los Cuinis cartel, and Guzman.

Guzman is currently being held in a federal prison on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas.The Sinaloa Cartel druglord could be extradited to the United States by early 2017. 

El Chapo’s Lawyers Say He Won’t Get A Fair U.S. Trial Because Of Donald Trump

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El Chapo’s lawyers are fighting the drug baron’s extradition to America on murder and drug charges on the grounds that he won’t get a fair hearing because of Donald Trump.

Attorneys for the former kingpin of the Sinaloa Cartel are using Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants being ‘rapists and murderers’ as evidence that any trial in the U.S. will be biased.

Mexican and U.S. officials want to have El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman Loera, tried
and imprisoned in America because of his track record of escaping from Mexican prisons.Guzman, who made billions of dollars smuggling drugs from the east of Mexico into America, was first captured by authorities in 1993 when he was sentenced to 20 years behind bars.However, he was free again in 2001 after bribing prison guards with a reported $2.5million to turn a blind eye as he was wheeled out of jail in a laundry basket.

It took authorities 13 years to relocate Guzman, who narrowly avoided capture several times, before he was locked away again in 2014.

Despite repeated warnings by U.S. authorities that Mexico did not have the means to hold Guzman he was again thrown into their most secure prison, and freed himself for a second time in 2015.

Guzman was recaptured by Mexican marines after a fierce firefight last week and is now facing life behind bars on drug trafficking and murder.

This time Mexican authorities have agreed to have the cartel boss extradited, a move which his lawyers are bitterly resisting.

Trump used the issue of Mexican immigration across America’s southern border to launch his presidential campaign.

Daily Mail UK