A US court rejected an appeal by former Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to review a 2019 ruling that sentenced to life imprisonment.
Guzmán, who for years led the powerful Sinaloa Cartel to which are attributed thousands of deaths in Mexicohad submitted requests for habeas corpus –civil lawsuits used to evaluate whether an incarceration is legal– and asked for legal representation in this appeal.
“This was perhaps the most notorious criminal trial of the decade, and the charges for which the petitioner was convicted were well could have resulted in the death penalty if not for the terms of his extradition“said the judge Brian Coganof the Eastern District of New York, in the opinion that rejected the request.
Failure rejects arguments that Guzmán’s defense did not sufficiently explore a plea deal and cites confidential evidence that suggests ‘El Chapo’ still controls up to billions of dollars in assetseven though they are not in your name.
Cogan, who also presided over Guzmán’s 2019 trial and conviction, declined the request for legal advice, saying that The condemned man already had the help of Mariel Colón Mir-a lawyer who in recent years has represented the drug kingpin and his wife.
Colón did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judge too He questioned where Guzmán had obtained the funds to pay his lawyers. and why his wife, released from prison in September, has not had access to his assets.
Guzmán, 66 years old, He is serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison known as the “Alcatraz of the Rocky Mountains”where the prisoners are under confinement isolation for 23 hours a day.
After twice escaping from maximum security prisons in Mexico, including down a mile-long tunnel from his cell, Guzmán was deported in 2017 to the United States and convicted on drug trafficking charges in 2019.
Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel remains one of the two most powerful criminal organizations in the country, along with its main rival, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
A powerful faction within the Sinaloa cartel is now led by Guzmán’s four sons, one of whom has also been extradited to the United States.