Former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has had his request to reinstate his visitation rights denied as he languishes in the maximum security ADX Florence prison in Colorado.
The 67-year-old co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, who once bragged about being behind the murder of 3,000 people, lamented that he feels alone since his rights as a prisoner were stripped withdrawn in a letter he wrote in March. 20.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 has no 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 rights and telephone privileges – previously two calls per month – were revoked upon his sentencing, Cogan added.
Former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been denied his request in a New York federal court to restore his appeal and visitation rights as he languishes at the ADX Florence maximum security prison , in Colorado.
The 67-year-old co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, who once bragged about killing 2,000 to 3,000 people, lamented feeling alone without his children and wife Emma Coronel (pictured) since gaining her rights as a prisoner was removed in a letter he wrote on March 20
Guzman was also denied visitation rights with his wife, according to CBS News.
In the missive filed in court last Tuesday, Guzmán pleaded with Judge Brian Cogan to allow his wife Emma Coronel to visit him and requested that he be allowed to speak on the phone to the couple’s twin daughters.
“Sorry to bother you again with the request I already asked you regarding my wife, Emma Coronel,” Guzmán wrote in the letter.
“I ask you to allow him to visit me and bring my daughters, because my daughters can only visit me during school holidays, since they are studying in Mexico.”
The former cartel leader showed his softer side, even as he proudly ruled a drug empire that saw thousands massacred – and millions more affected by his illegal wares.
Guzmán also asked Cogan to reinstate his right to speak with the 12-year-old girls twice a month for 15 minutes.
He claimed he hadn’t spoken to them since May 2023, when the prison stopped allowing phone calls.
“I asked when they were going to call me and my daughters and the staff here told me that the FBI agent monitoring the calls was not answering,” he wrote.
Guzman’s visitation rights and telephone privilege – previously two calls per month – were revoked upon his sentencing, 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 sentence.
El Chapo spent 23 hours locked in a 7-by-12-foot concrete cell at ADX Florence, a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
“That’s all they told me. I ask you to please continue to give me the two calls you have authorized per month. I don’t understand why the prosecutor in charge of SAM rules stopped allowing calls with my daughters.
The former kingpin spent 23 hours locked in a 7-by-12-foot concrete cell with double doors in a section nicknamed “Range 13.”
He is monitored 24 hours a day and is prohibited from mixing with the prison population.
Guzmán has often complained about prison conditions since he was convicted by a federal jury in February 2019 of 10 counts, including drug trafficking, money laundering and using a firearm to commit crimes.
In March 2022, his lawyer, Mariel Colón, told the Mexican network Milenio that prison staff were violating his rights.
“They don’t take it out in the open, they don’t take it out for a single day,” Colón said at the time. “We’ve had a lot of problems because they don’t treat him medically if he gets sick. Requests are ignored.
She claimed that prison staff also denied El Chapo access to water and dental care for his molars.
Coronel told Noticias Univisión in 2019 that he had vision problems and complained about a bad haircut because barbers could not communicate with him in Spanish.
Guzmán has often complained about prison conditions since he was convicted by a federal jury in February 2019 of 10 counts, including drug trafficking, money laundering and using a firearm to commit crimes.
El Chapo is only allowed to spend one hour outside the concrete cell where he will spend the rest of his life.
“He looks a lot thinner, a little more stuffy. He’s not doing well there,” Colón said at the time. “It’s the saddest I’ve ever seen him.”
Guzmán was once considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world – after Colombian Pablo Escobar – and was extradited from Mexico in January 2017 after being recaptured in January 2016 following his second escape from prison in June 2015 via a tunnel that his organization had built underneath. the prison.
Before that, he had been on the run for 13 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 serving 31 months of a 36-month sentence handed down by a Washington, D.C. federal court in November 2021, after pleading guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering. ‘money.
His son, Ovidio Guzmán, was extradited from Mexico to Chicago in September to face drug trafficking charges.
Guzmán’s three other sons, Iván Guzmán, Jesús Guzmán, and Joaquín Guzmán, are wanted by the U.S. government on similar charges.
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