Judge admonishes defense attorney for ‘El Chapo’

Jurors told to disregard some of his allegations

NEW YORK – A judge rejected a prosecution request Wednesday to throw out the entire opening statement presented by a lawyer for accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, but he lectured defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman for making claims that won’t be supported by trial evidence.

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan issued the ruling on the second day of the trial unfolding under heavy security at Brooklyn federal court.

Prosecutors objected to Lichtman’s characterization of Guzman on Tuesday as a fall guy for corrupt Mexican officials and a man he dubbed the world’s biggest drug dealer. Lichtman argued that reputed drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada remained free because he paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the current and former presidents of Mexico – allegations they have denied.

The prosecutors objected to Lichtman’s argument that the federal government unfairly singled out Guzman for prosecution based on his notoriety.

“Your opening statement handed out a promissory note that your case is not going to cash,” Cogan told him.

Throwing out the opening statement would be a step too far, the judge said. He told the jury to focus on the evidence against the alleged former leader of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa drug cartel and disregard some of the defense team’s references to “particularly outrageous” conduct by the United States.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Fels, in the government’s opening statement, described Guzman as a cunning businessman who revolutionized narcotics trafficking to the USA.

Guzman rose from a small-time marijuana dealer in Mexico to moving tons of cocaine, heroin and other drugs from South America and his native land through a network of secret tunnels beneath the southern U.S. border, Fels told jurors. On Wednesday, prosecutors showed jurors evidence of one such tunnel that ran roughly 50 yards from a house just south of the border into southern Arizona. The tunnel was equipped with electric lights and was hidden below a section of flooring that was raised and lowered by a mechanical piston system in the house in Mexico.

Carlos Salazar, a retired investigator for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told jurors about the U.S. discovery in 1990 of a roughly 1-ton cocaine shipment linked to the tunnel. Salazar’s testimony provided no direct connection of the shipment to Guzman.

Wearing a dark suit, subdued tie and a light purple shirt, Guzman waved to his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, as he entered the courtroom Wednesday. He repeatedly gazed in her direction while listening to trial testimony from Spanish-speaking translators.

Guzman is charged with 17 criminal counts, including drug trafficking, conspiring to murder rivals, money laundering and weapons offense.

Nicknamed “El Chapo,” or “Shorty,” for his 5-foot-6 stature, he built an organization that used trucks, planes, trains and even a submarine to speed drugs into the exploding U.S. market for more than three decades, reaping billions of dollars in profits, Fels said.

When rivals, government informers or others got in his way, Guzman had them captured, tortured and killed, Fels said, sometimes wielding his diamondencrusted pistol or gold-plated AK-47 automatic rifle.

“Your opening statement

handed out a promissory

note that your case is not

going to cash.” Brian Cogan, federal judge