Mexican druglord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is set to appear in Brooklyn for a court hearing Friday, rather than through a video link, Brian Cogan, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
Although Judge Cogan had previously said that he was inclined to have “El Chapo” Guzman — who made two prison breaks in Mexico — appear through video conferencing, he has now asked for him to be present in the court. It is suggested that the reason for doing so is because his drug operations financial details will be discussed in the court, according to New York Daily News.
Following the extradition, Guzman– also known as “Shorty” —faces as many as 17 criminal charges ranging from money laundering, drug trafficking, to kidnapping and conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana.
Although U.S. prosecutors are seeking to impose a life imprisonment on Guzman, and have also asked for an order to seize $14 billion (£11.3billion) of his assets, they dropped murder charges, as a way to extradite him faster, the Guardian reported in May.
This would be Guzman’s second appearance in the U.S. federal court in Brooklyn following his first hearing on 20 Jan., when he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
During his previous hearing, when he was asked if he understood the accusations against him, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel said: “Well, I didn’t know until now”. But upon repeated questioning, he responded by saying that he understood.
The question on Guzman’s presence in the court is an important one as prosecutors say that his absence could signal to the public that he is too dangerous for the courtroom, apart from unnecessary media publicity. The defense counsel reported that currently Guzman is locked up for 23 hours a day at Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan, according to the New York Daily News report.
Guzmán had managed two sensationalist prison breaks – once in 2015 by way of a secret tunnel before he was ultimately captured and arrested six months later on Jan. 8, 2016 and another jailbreak in 2001, when he was sneaked out of the prison back in 2001 after he was hidden in a laundry cart.
Most recently, a video surfacing on the internet suggests that features a Mexican prison gang, whose faces were partially concealed with cloth, sunglasses, and hats, have pledged to break Guzman out of prison in the U.S. if he faces jail time, after claiming that they have bought off all the prison guards.
“We are the hitmen who are going to take care of him…We want to tell the people this: If you bring ‘el señor’ here and if ‘el señor’ asks us to free him, we are going to take him out immediately” the men said in Spanish.
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