El Chapo judge wants changes in prison
New York, Oct. 13: A judge in New York has ordered prison officials to provide Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman with some new methods for participating in his defence.
US District Judge Brian Cogan directed the government on Thursday to modify an attorney- visiting room with a second computer monitor and a slot for passing legal documents through a partition.
Mr Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that his drug cartel laundered billions of dollars and oversaw a ruthless campaign of murders and kidnappings.
The defense has claimed that he’s being held in in humane and overly restrictive conditions at a high- security Manhattan jail known for housing mob and terrorism suspects.
Prosecutors say El Chapo’s jail conditions are appropriate for someone who escaped from prison twice in Mexico.
El Chapo had argued four counts accusing him of international cocaine distribution were faulty because the five- year deadline to bring charges had passed.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors blew off defense arguments, noting the druglord’s 2001 escape from Mexican prison — via a laundry cart — and his next 13 years as a fugitive put the pause button on statutes of limitation. Besides, they said, two of the charges were within the deadline in any event.
Judge Brian Cogan decided prosecutors “more than sufficiently” showed Guzman was a “fugitive.