Notorious drug lord unlikely to break out again
Joaquin ‘‘El Chapo’’ Guzman has landed in a place were he cannot escape and cannot do business, a dreaded stronghold in lower Manhattan that some call the ‘‘Guantanamo’’ of New York.
The Mexican drug kingpin is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre, a featureless slab of mushroom-coloured concrete just south of Chinatown. The centre has in the past been the temporary home of mafia dons and terrorists, Ponzi schemers and drug lords.
‘‘There are no cellphones. He has to know it is over,’’ said Jamie Hunt, United States Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge of the investigation.
‘‘He is in a US prison now. He is not going to be able to communicate.’’
Less than 24 hours after his extradition from Mexico, Guzman, 59, appeared yesterday in a federal courtroom in Brooklyn to be arraigned on a 17-count indictment on charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder and firearms violations.
Represented by a governmentappointed federal defender, he pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In a surprise move on the eve of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, the Mexican government extradited Guzman to the US – apparently as a parting gift to the Obama administration. He arrived on Friday at an airport in Long Island and was driven in a 13-car motorcade to the Metropolitan Correctional Centre.
Guzman has twice broken out of Mexican prisons – once hidden in a laundry basket, and another time via a tunnel that was dug by associates under his shower – so there are concerns about whether New York will prove up to the task of confining the Houdini of drug Guzman’s rise is akin to that of a small cancerous tumour that has metastasised in a fullblown scourge. lords. The Metropolitan Correction Centre might just such a place.
‘‘It is worse than Guantanamo,’’ said New York lawyer Joshua Dratel, who has defended several high-profile terrorism suspects who were housed at the centre. ‘‘It is about as soul-negating existence as there is in this country in the federal system.’’
Guzman faces charges of drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in California, Florida, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York and Texas. Federal prosecutors in their respective states had been vying to try their hand at convicting Guzman, but the case went to Brooklyn, where former US attorney general Loretta Lynch had served as US attorney.
In order to expedite the extradition, the US waived the death penalty, so Guzman faces a sentence of life in prison. The US government is also pursuing the forfeiture of US$14 billion (NZ$19.5b) from his drug profits.
Debunking El Chapo’s mythical status, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Robert L Capers said: ‘‘Guzman’s story is not one of a do-gooder, or Robin Hood or escape artist . . . . Guzman’s rise is akin to that of a small cancerous tumour that has metastasised in a full-blown scourge.’’
‘‘This is the most powerful criminal of modern times,’’ added Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Angel Melendez.