El Chapo trial a NY attraction
NEW YORK: There was a time, after a spectacular prison escape, when Joaquin Guzman was the most wanted man in the world.
The thrill of being able to see the man known as El Chapo up close – and live to tell the tale – has been drawing curious New Yorkers, fans of TV crime shows and even tourists to the Brooklyn courtroom where the infamous Mexican drug trafficker is being tried on charges that could put him in a US prison for l ife.
Onlookers sit up straight in the spectator area and look up so they can see Guzman’s face.
They also look with curiosity at his wife, Emma Coronel, who sits in the courtroom’s public gallery near- ly every day.
“It was surreal. It was like I was seeing the (Netflix) TV show El Chapo”’ said spectator Peter Stolt, 23, who attended three days of the trial in November and hopes to show up for at least one more.
Stolt said he has stood in line outside the building at around 6.30am to make sure he gets a seat
What impressed him most, he said, was when M iguel Angel Martinez, a former assistant to Guzman who is now a prosecution witness, testified in dramatic detail how he survived several attempts on his life that he claimed were ordered by Guzman, one after an ominous serenade by a Mexican brass band.
The diminutive Guzman, whose nickname means “Shorty” in Spanish, was extradited to the United States last year to face charges accusing him of running the Sinaloa cartel, which smuggled tonnes of cocaine into the US.
Joaquin Martinez, a 55-year-old Mexican who has lived in New York for a decade, said seeing El Chapo in person was worth the trip from Manhattan to Brooklyn.
However, he expected him with a moustache, like in many of his photos.
“It took me a couple of seconds to realise it was him. He looked like ... a regular person,” he said.