Former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has had his plea to restore his phone and visitation rights denied as he languishes in the super-security ADX prison in Florence, Colorado.
The 67-year-old co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, who once bragged that he was behind the murders of 3,000 people, moaned that he has felt lonely since being stripped of his rights as a prisoner in a letter he wrote in March. 20.
Judge Brian M. Cogan wrote April 10 that it was not within his jurisdiction to determine Guzman’s ability to visit and call family.
“This Court does not have the authority to modify the conditions imposed by the Bureau of Prisons,” Cogan wrote in the motion filed April 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
His visitation and telephone privileges — previously two calls a month — were wiped out when he was sentenced, Cogan added.
Former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been denied his request in federal court in New York to have his telephone and visitation rights restored while he languishes in Colorado’s ADX super maximum security prison in Florence.
The 67-year-old co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, who once bragged that he was behind the murders of 2,000 to 3,000 people, complained that he feels lonely without his children or wife Emma Coronel (pictured) since becoming president. a prisoner was taken away in a letter he wrote on March 20
Guzman was also denied visitation rights with his wife, he said CBS News.
In the letter, filed with the court last Tuesday, Guzmán begged Judge Brian Cogan to allow his wife Emma Coronel to visit him and asked if he had permission to speak to the couple’s twin daughters by phone .
“I am sorry to bother you again with the request I made to you before regarding my wife, Emma Coronel,” Guzmán wrote in the letter.
“I ask that you please allow her to visit me and bring my daughters with her, as my daughters can only visit me during their school holidays as they are studying in Mexico.”
The former cartel boss showed his softer side, despite proudly running a drug empire where thousands of people were slaughtered – and millions more were affected by his illegal wares.
Guzmán also asked Cogan to reinstate his right to speak to the 12-year-old girls twice a month for 15 minutes.
He claimed he had not spoken to them since May 2023, when the prison stopped authorizing the calls.
“I asked when they were going to call my daughters and the staff here told me that the FBI agent monitoring the calls is not answering,” he wrote.
Guzman’s visitation and telephone privileges – previously two phone calls per month – were canceled when he was sentenced, Cogan added
Guzman was also denied visitation rights with his wife, Emma Coronel, who was released from U.S. federal custody in September 2023 after serving 31 months of a 36-month prison sentence.
El Chapo spends 23 hours locked in an 8-by-10-foot concrete cell at ADX Florence, a super-maximum security prison in Colorado
“That’s all they told me. I ask that you please continue to give me the two calls per month that you have authorized me to make. I don’t understand why the prosecutor, who is responsible for the SAM rules, no longer allows conversations with my daughters.’
The former kingpin spends 23 hours locked in an 8-by-14-foot concrete cell with double doors in a section called ‘Range 13’.
He is under 24-hour surveillance and is prohibited from mingling with the inmate population.
Guzmán has often complained about prison conditions since he was found guilty by a federal jury in February 2019 of 10 charges, including drug trafficking, money laundering and using a firearm to commit crimes.
In March 2022, his lawyer, Mariel Colón, told Mexican network Milenio that prison staff violated his rights.
“They don’t take him out, they don’t take him for a day,” Colón claimed at the time. “We’ve had a lot of problems because they don’t treat him medically when he gets sick. The requests are being ignored.”
She alleged that prison staff also denied El Chapo access to water and dental treatment for his molars.
Coronel told Noticias Univisión in 2019 that he had vision problems and that he had complained about a bad haircut because the hairdressers could not communicate with him in Spanish.
Guzmán has often complained about prison conditions since he was found guilty by a federal jury in February 2019 of 10 charges, including drug trafficking, money laundering and using a firearm to commit crimes.
El Chapo is only allowed to spend an hour outside the concrete prison cell where he will spend the rest of his life
“He looks a lot thinner, a little more suffocated. He is not doing well there,” Colón said at the time. “It’s the saddest I’ve ever seen him.”
Once considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world – after Colombian Pablo Escobar – Guzmán was extradited from Mexico in January 2017 after being recaptured in January 2016 following his second prison escape in June 2015 through a tunnel his organization had built underneath constructed. the prison.
Before that, he had been on the run for thirteen years after escaping from prison on a laundry cart in January 2001.
His wife was released from U.S. federal custody in September 2023 after completing 31 months of a 36-month prison sentence handed down by a federal court in Washington, D.C. in November 2021 after pleading guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering .
His son, Ovidio Guzmán, was extradited from Mexico to Chicago in September to face drug trafficking charges.
Guzmán’s other three sons, Iván Guzmán, Jesús Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán, are wanted by the U.S. government on similar charges.