Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has complained in court about his conditions of custody in a US jail.
The Mexican drug lord is being held in a maximum security prison in New York after he was extradited last month.
El Chapo Guzman escaped twice from prison in Mexico, once in a laundry basket and most recently through a tunnel in his cell.
His lawyers say he has been denied marital visits and is largely kept in solitary confinement.
The claims arose at a federal court in Brooklyn at a hearing for El Chapo Guzman, who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he ran the world’s largest drug-trafficking organization during a decades-long career.
El Chapo Guzman faces life in prison if convicted.
His wife Emma Coronel, a 27-year-old former beauty queen and mother of his twins, flew from Mexico to attend the hearing.
El Chapo Guzman’s lawyers said it was first time Emma Coronel had seen her husband since his surprise extradition two weeks ago.
The 59-year-old is reportedly on 23-hour lockdown in a special unit of the Manhattan Correctional Center.
Michelle Gelernt, one of El Chapo Guzman’s court-appointed lawyers, said: “We understand the need for security but we think it has gone above and beyond.”
District Judge Brian Cogan pointed out that the “history of the defendant is somewhat unusual” – a reference to his past escapes – and said the Federal Bureau of Prisons should decide what conditions El Chapo Guzman faced and who he could see.
His Sinaloa cartel allegedly smuggled hundreds of tonnes of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines to the US while waging war with other gangs.
The cartel is accused of carrying out thousands of murders and kidnappings, and bribing officials.
El Chapo Guzman is believed to have amassed a billion-dollar fortune through the drugs trade.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had initially resisted extraditing the drug lord to the US, insisting that he should face justice at home.
However, after El Chapo Guzman was recaptured in January 2016, President Pena Nieto changed his mind on extradition and ordered officials to speed up the process.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has pleaded not guilty in the US to charges that he ran the world’s largest drug-trafficking operation.
The Mexican drug lord was extradited from Mexico on January 19.
US prosecutors want an order to seize $14 billion of the head of the Sinaloa cartel’s assets.
In 2015, El Chapo Guzman famously escaped from a high-security prison through a tunnel – while being recorded on CCTV. He had fought against extradition since his recapture in early 2016.
Federal authorities have sought El Chapo Guzman for more than 20 years. He faces 17 charges including drug trafficking, illegal firearms use, money laundering, and smuggling cash across the border.
Ahead of his first appearance in a New York court, prosecutors revealed that they would seek the civil forfeiture of El Chapo Guzman’s assets to the amount of $14 billion – an indication of the extent of his empire.
US attorney Robert Capers said: “He’s a man known for no other life than a life of crime, violence, death and destruction. And now he’ll have to answer to that. That’s who Chapo Guzman is.”
Image source Vimeo
If convicted, El Chapo Guzman faces a mandatory life sentence.
Robert Capers also revealed that prosecutors were not aware the extradition was happening in advance.
He said: “Guzman’s story is not one of a do-gooder or a Robin Hood or even one of a famous escape artist who miraculously escaped from Mexican prisons on multiple occasions.
“Guzman’s destructive and murderous rise as an international narcotics trafficker is akin to that of a small cancerous tumor that metastasized and grew into a full blown scourge.”
His ability to evade capture made El Chapo Guzman stand out from other drug gang leaders.
His first high profile escape was in 2001 when it was reported – despite some doubts – that he had escaped from a maximum security prison by hiding in a laundry basket.
El Chapo was recaptured thirteen years later. But in 2015, he walked out of his cell through a cleanly-dug tunnel, while under video surveillance.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had initially resisted extraditing El Chapo Guzman to the US, insisting that he should face justice at home.
However, after El Chapo Guzman was recaptured in January 2016, President Pena Nieto changed his mind on extradition and ordered officials to speed up the process.
El Chapo Guzman was extradited suddenly on January 19, arriving in New York on a flight from Ciudad Juarez.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been extradited to the US, the Mexican government announced on January 19.
The notorious Mexican drug lord arrived in New York on a flight from Ciudad Juarez.
El Chapo Guzman, who could face life in a US prison, is wanted on charges of drug trafficking and smuggling vast amounts of drugs into the country.
The leader of the Sinaloa cartel was facing two extradition requests – one from California and another from Texas.
In 2016, El Chapo Guzman was moved to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the border from El Paso in Texas, but authorities at the time denied the transfer was a precursor to extradition.
He has been fighting to stay in Mexico but his appeals were rejected.
El Chapo Guzman was under close watch, having previously broken out of two Mexican high-security jails.
He is now expected to appear in a US federal court in Brooklyn on January 20.
A federal indictment in the Eastern District of New York, where El Chapo Guzman is expected to be prosecuted, accuses him of overseeing a trafficking cartel with thousands of members and billions of dollars in profits laundered back to Mexico, the Associated Press reports.
It says El Chapo Guzman and other members of the Sinaloa cartel employed hit men who carried out murders, kidnappings and acts of torture.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had initially resisted extraditing El Chapo Guzman to the US, insisting that he should face justice at home.
However, after El Chapo Guzman was recaptured in January 2016, President Pena Nieto changed his mind on extradition and ordered officials to speed up the process.
Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman will be extradited to the United States by February 2017, Mexico’s top security official says.
However, El Chapo Guzman can appeal any decision to extradite him and his lawyers say they will “fight until the end”.
El Chapo Guzman faces multiple charges in the US, including drug trafficking and murder.
The drug lord is being held in a maximum security prison in Ciudad Juarez, near the US border.
El Chapo Guzman was arrested in January after six months on the run following his escape through a tunnel in his jail cell.
He had already escaped a maximum security facility once before, spending 13 years at large.
In a TV interview, Renato Sales Heredia, Mexico’s national security commissioner, said that the government hoped to extradite the cartel boss “in January or February”.
However, El Chapo Guzman’s lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, said there were too many appeals pending for the extradition to happen so quickly.
“That’s not enough time,” Jose Refugio Rodriguez said, adding that the only way to send Guzman to the US by early next year would be “to take him out [of jail] by force”.
Mexico agreed to transfer El Chapo Guzman in May after the US guaranteed he would not face the death penalty.
A judge began reviewing the case in September, but it is unclear when a ruling will be announced.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons are suspected of launching an ambush on a military convoy in Mexico that left five soldiers dead, Mexican officials say.
The assault in the northern state of Sinaloa involved grenades and assault rifles.
According to officials, the attackers succeeded in freeing a wounded drugs suspect who had been captured earlier and was being taken to hospital.
At least ten people were injured.
Sinaloa is the stronghold of the drugs gang formerly headed by Joaquin Guzman.
El Chapo Guzman was recaptured in January.
Officials believe the ambush may have been organized by his sons, who are believed to have taken over the running of the cartel.
“Up this point we are not certain about this group, but it is very probable that it was the sons of Chapo,” said local military commander Gen. Alfonso Duarte.
Up to 60 gunmen set upon the vehicles, beating the soldiers and freeing a drugs suspect who was being taken to hospital.
According to officials, the suspect freed by the gunman has been identified as Julio Oscar Ortiz Vega, also known as “El Kevin”.
The gunmen stole the ambulance and a military truck burst into flames during the assault.
Mexican authorities believe the sons of Guzman have been involved in other violent episodes in recent weeks.
In August, one of them was kidnapped by a rival group. Another son, Ivan, is also said to be involved in cartel activities.
El Chapo Guzman’s brother, Aureliano Guzman Loera, also known as “El Guano”, is struggling for control of drug production against the Beltran Leyva drug cartel in the remote area, officials say.
Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was arrested in January after six months on the run following his escape through a tunnel in his jail cell.
He had already escaped a maximum security facility once before, spending 13 years at large.
A Mexican judge is considering the case to have El Chapo Guzman extradited to the US.
El Chapo Guzman is expected to appeal against any decision to extradite him and his lawyers say the process could take years to come to a conclusion.
Mexican convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been moved to a prison close to the border with the US.
He was taken to a prison near Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso in Texas, as part of a normal rotation of prisoners for security reasons, officials said.
The head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, El Chapo Guzman, also known as Shorty, was re-captured in January, six months after he escaped from prison.
Joaquin Guzman is wanted in the US on charges of smuggling drugs into the country.
Photo AP
His transfer to Ciudad Juarez was not a precursor to extradition, Mexican officials told Reuters.
According to Mexico’s National Security Commission, the move was in line with security protocols, and it had rotated more than 7,400 inmates as part of new security strategy.
The authorities said that El Chapo Guzman was moved to a new prison “because of works taking place to reinforce security” in Altiplano – his old prison near Mexico City.
Analysts suggested the move was to prevent him escaping during the works.
El Chapo Guzman, who was named Public Enemy Number One by the Chicago Crime Commission in 2013, has been indicted by at least seven US federal district courts.
According to Mexican officials, the process to extradite him to the US could take at least a year.
In March, El Chapo Guzman asked to be extradited rapidly so he could receive better treatment in prison.
His lawyer said El Chapo Guzman had asked him to stop fighting his extradition because guards at his prison would not let him sleep.
El Chapo Guzman was captured in January and returned to the Altiplano maximum security jail near Mexico City after six months on the run.
He had escaped from Altiplano in July through a one mile-long tunnel under the floor of his shower stall in his cell.
Leaked security footage of El Chapo Guzman’s prison break showed how guards failed to detect his escape until more than 20 minutes after it had happened, despite the sound of loud banging coming from his cell.
Mexican marines arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.
Altiplano director and a number of guards were arrested in connection with El Chapo Guzman’s escape.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s top money launderer, Juan Manuel Alvarez Inzunza, has been arrested while on holiday in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexican authorities say.
El Chapo Guzman, a former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, is currently awaiting extradition to the United States.
The Mexican drug lord was recaptured in January after breaking out of a high-security prison.
Juan Manuel Alvarez Inzunza, nicknamed Rey Midas (King Midas) is suspected of laundering $300 million-$400 million a year for the Sinaloa cartel through a network of companies and currency exchange centers.
A US federal court in Washington had requested Juan Manuel Alvarez Inzunza’s arrest and he is likely to be extradited.
El Chapo Guzman himself is also facing extradition to the US on charges of drug trafficking in California, and murder in Texas.
Earlier this month, the drug lord asked for the extradition process to progress rapidly so he could receive better treatment in prison.
Since El Chapo Guzman’s recapture in January, six months after he escaped from prison, he has been subject to a stricter regime.
Kate del Castillo has been called in for questioning over her links with the imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The Mexican actress set up a meeting in October between El Chapo Guzman, who was then on the run, and Sean Penn.
Kate del Castillo and El Chapo Guzman exchanged dozens of messages before she and Sean Penn met him in northern Mexico.
El Chapo (Shorty) Guzman was arrested on January 8, six months after escaping from a high security jail.
The lord was captured by Mexican troops in the northern city of Los Mochis and taken back to the Altiplano prison.
Mexican authorities are considering El Chapo Guzman’s extradition to the US. In the meantime, they say he is being kept under 24-hour surveillance to prevent another escape.
Photo YouTube
Sean Penn interviewed El Chapo Guzman for Rolling Stone magazine.
The contact between Kate del Castillo and El Chapo Guzman helped Mexican police establish his whereabouts and eventually capture him.
Attorney General Arely Gomez said the security forces had been following El Chapo Guzman’s lawyer, who led them to Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo.
Mobile phone exchanges between Kate del Castillo and El Chapo Guzman reveal that he initially did not know who Sean Penn was.
He seemed to be infatuated by the actress, who is famous in Mexico.
Kate del Castillo is best known for her portrayal of drug boss Teresa Mendoza in the soap opera La Reina del Sur (Queen of the South).
El Chapo Guzman was planning to get Hollywood to produce a movie about his life.
Kate del Castillo persuaded El Chapo Guzman that Sean Penn had the experience and connections to realize his dream.
“I don’t have the means to pay for what you’re doing for me,” he wrote, according to transcripts obtained by El Universal newspaper.
Responding to rumors that she had become too close to El Chapo Guzman, Kate del Castillo tweeted on January 13 that she would tell her side of the story.
“As expected, many people have decided to manipulate the information and fabricate false stories to divert us from the real issue,” she wrote.
“I will soon give you my version.”
Mexican prosecutors said Kate del Castillo, who is in the US, will be allowed to be questioned at the embassy in Los Angeles.
El Chapo Guzman was Mexico’s most wanted man.
He was the founder of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which smuggled vast amounts of illegal drugs into the US.
El Chapo Guzman is linked to other crimes, including murder and extortion.
Sean Penn says he has no regrets regarding his secret interview with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The actor has been asked by the AP if he was worried about images that claimed to show Mexican officials watching him before the visit.
“I’ve got nothin’ to hide,” Sean Penn wrote back in an email.
Mexican drug lord El Chapo Guzman was captured on January 8, three months after their meeting and six months after escaping from prison.
Sean Penn did not answer questions about whether he should have let El Chapo Guzman read his story in advance of publication, or whether he did enough to protect his source.
The actor was criticized for the interview – a White House spokesman said it was “maddening”, while Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio said it was “grotesque”.
The US has filed a request for El Chapo Guzman to be extradited to face charges of smuggling vast amounts of drugs into the country.
On January 11, Mexican officials said the process to extradite El Chapo Guzman to the US could take at least a year.
Sean Penn’s interview with El Chapo Guzman was conducted in the Mexican jungle, and unnamed Mexican officials have said the meeting helped them catch the 58-year-old boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
El Chapo Guzman has been returned to the maximum-security Altipano jail.
In July, he had escaped from there via a tunnel dug to the shower in his cell.
In the Rolling Stone magazine article, El Chapo Guzman said he was the world’s leading supplier of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.
The Mexican authorities have not said whether they would investigate Sean Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo who arranged the interview with El Chapo Guzman.
Sean Penn’s interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been criticized by the Obama administration and Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio.
The interview was conducted in October in the Mexican jungle after El Chapo Guzman’s jail break, and published by Rolling Stone magazine.
A White House spokesman said Sean Penn’s “so-called interview” was “maddening”, while Marco Rubio said it was “grotesque”.
El Chapo (Shorty) Guzman, 58, was recaptured on January 8 after months on the run.
Unnamed Mexican officials say Sean Penn’s secret meeting helped lead them to the boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
El Chapo Guzman has now been returned to the maximum-security Altiplano jail, from where he escaped in July 2015 via a tunnel dug to the shower in his cell.
In the Rolling Stone article, the result of a seven-hour “sit-down”, El Chapo Guzman said he was the world’s leading supplier of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.
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 Sean Penn and a Mexican actress, Kate del Castillo, who apparently arranged the interview.
Denis McDonough declined to answer a question about whether the US would hand Sean Penn over to Mexico for questioning.
“Well, it poses a lot of very interesting questions both for him and for others involved in this-so-called interview, so we’ll see what happens on that – I’m not going to get ahead of it,” he said.
Marco Rubio told ABC: “If one of these American actors who have benefited from the greatness of this country, who have made money from our free enterprise system, want to go fawn all over a criminal and a drug trafficker in their interviews, they have a constitutional right to do it. I find it grotesque.”
Mexico has said it will begin the process of extraditing El Chapo Guzman to the US, in line with extradition requests from 2015.
He is charged with smuggling vast amounts of drugs into the US.
No detail has been given about the timeframe for extradition but experts say the process could take months.
Mexico and the US have an extradition treaty but there are many steps that need to be taken and officials who need to approve the request.
Previous requests from the US have been turned down.
El Chapo Guzman, who was named Public Enemy Number One by the Chicago Crime Commission in 2013, has been indicted by at least seven US federal district courts.
Mexico will begin the process of extraditing recaptured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States, the Mexican attorney general’s office has announced.
It said the move was in line with US extradition requests from 2014.
On January 8, El Chapo Guzman was detained and sent back to the maximum-security prison he escaped from six months ago.
El Chapo Guzman, who was one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, escaped from the Altiplano prison in July through a tunnel dug in the showers.
That was his second escape – he was first arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and escaped from Puente Grande jail in 2001, reportedly in a laundry basket after bribing officials.
El Chapo Guzman was on the run for 13 years before being held again in 2014. Previous requests from the US have been turned down.
Photo AP
On January 9, Rolling Stone magazine published an article by Sean Penn based on a meeting he had with El Chapo Guzman at his secret hideout before his capture.
The two men discuss various topics, including drug trafficking. El Chapo Guzman is quoted as saying: “If there was no consumption, there would be no sales.”
No detail was given about the time frame for an extradition but experts say the process could take months.
The attorney general’s office said that lawyers for Joaquin Guzman would have three days to file objections and 20 more days to prove them, though that timeframe could be extended, AFP reports.
In a statement welcoming El Chapo Guzman’s recapture, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said he had caused “significant violence, suffering and corruption on multiple continents”.
The US filed requests in 2014 for his extradition so he could face charges of smuggling vast amounts of drugs into the country.
El Chapo Guzman, who was named Public Enemy Number One by the Chicago Crime Commission in 2013, has been indicted by at least seven US federal district courts.
He was arrested on January 8 in the north-western city of Los Mochis in his home state of Sinaloa – which he had come to dominate through his drugs cartel.
During the raid, El Chapo Guzman managed to flee through a drain but was later caught by marines in a shootout.
Five suspects were killed in the operation and one marine wounded.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been sent back to the maximum-security prison he escaped from six months ago after his recapture on January 8.
The Mexican drug lord was paraded before cameras before being bundled into a helicopter to Altiplano prison in central Mexico.
El Chapo (Shorty) Guzman escaped from there in July through a tunnel dug in the showers.
He was arrested on January 8 in the city of Los Mochis in his home state of Sinaloa – which he had come to dominate through the drugs cartel he led.
During the early-morning raid, El Chapo Guzman managed to flee through a drain but was later caught by marines in a shootout.
Six people, including one marine, are reported to have been killed.
Part of the reason El Chapo Guzman was tracked down was because he contacted actors and producers in the hope of making a movie about his life, Mexico’s Attorney General Arely Gomez said.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto described Joaquin Guzman’s arrest as a “victory for the rule of law”.
The United States congratulated the Mexican government but did not indicate whether prosecutors would seek Joaquin Guzman’s extradition.
In a statement, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Joaquin Guzman had caused “significant violence, suffering and corruption on multiple continents”.
El Chapo Guzman’s July escape was his second – he was first arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and escaped from Puente Grande jail in 2001, reportedly in a laundry basket after bribing officials. He was on the run for 13 years before being held again in 2014.
According to Mexican authorities, drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, aka “Shorty”, used an elaborate tunnel to break out of a maximum security prison.
El Chapo Guzman’s escape route from Altiplano jail was more than 1 mile long and had ventilation and stairs, the national security commissioner said.
Eighteen guards are being questioned.
Joaquin Guzman was last seen in the showers of the jail on July 11. It was the second time he had escaped from a top security prison.
In 2001, El Chapo Guzman broke out by hiding in a laundry basket after bribing prison officials.
He had been serving a sentence of more than 20 years after being arrested in Guatemala in 1993.
His recapture in 2014 was hailed as a victory for Mexico’s government.
Officials say that El Chapo Guzman’s escape was discovered when officers checked his cell in the jail, which is near the capital, Mexico City.
They found a hole around 32ft deep with a ladder, which led to the tunnel, with lighting, ventilation and stairs.
It came to an end at a construction site outside the prison walls, security commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said at a news conference.
A motorcycle was also discovered, which police believe was used to transport tools and remove earth from the space.
A manhunt has been launched and flights suspended at a nearby Toluca airport.
Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto has ordered a full investigation to establish whether any officials helped Joaquin Guzman escape.
“I was profoundly shocked by the news. This is an affront to the Mexican state,” he said.
El Chapo Guzman’s wealth is estimated at $1 billion.
His rise to head of the Sinaloa cartel made him the world’s most wanted drug trafficker. It smuggles huge amounts of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine into the US.
Before his recapture in 2014, the US state department had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch issued a statement saying the US government shared Mexico’s concern regarding the escape of El Chapo Guzman.
“In addition to his crimes in Mexico, he faces multiple drug trafficking and organized crime charges in the United States,” she said.
Loretta E. Lynch said the US government is ready to co-operate with Mexico to help recapture El Chapo Guzman.
Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, aka “Shorty”, has escaped from a maximum security prison for a second time, officials say.
In a statement, Mexico’s National Security Commission said El Chapo Guzman was last seen in the showers of the Altiplano jail late on Saturday night.
Guzman was the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, which smuggles huge amounts of illegal drugs into the US.
His recapture in 2014 was hailed as a victory for Mexico’s government.
Officials say that Joaquin Guzman’s escape was discovered when officers checked his cell in the Altiplano prison, which is near Mexico City.
A search operation has been launched and flights have been suspended at a nearby airport.
El Chapo Guzman escaped from a Mexican high-security prison in 2001. He was smuggled out in a laundry basket after bribing prison officials.
He had been serving a sentence of more than 20 years, after being arrested in Guatemala in 1993.
El Chapo Guzman has been indicted in the US on federal drug trafficking charges.
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