CRIME
New York braced for “El Chapo” trial
November 13, 2018 - Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, one of the most infamous criminals in modern history, goes on trial in New York City.
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Guzmán is accused of running the world’s biggest drug cartel and spending a quarter of a century smuggling more than 155 tons of cocaine into the United States.
The mammoth trial in Brooklyn, which will cost millions of dollars and is expected to last more than four months, will see one of the world's most notorious criminals face the US justice system.
Guzmán, who has been held in solitary confinement since his extradition to the United States early last year, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he faces a possible life prison sentence.
More than a dozen co-operating witnesses are scheduled to testify, including some who worked for Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel. Prosecutors say they risk retribution by taking the stand and the court has taken some steps to conceal their identities. U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan barred courtroom sketch artists from drawing them.
Guzmán's lawyers are expected to attack the credibility of the witnesses by emphasizing their own criminal records, saying some have an incentive to lie to win leniency in their own cases.
One of Guzmán's attorneys, Eduardo Balarezo, has suggested that he hopes to convince jurors Guzman wasn't actually in charge of the cartel but was a lieutenant taking orders from someone else.
Despite his diminutive stature and nickname that means "Shorty," Guzmán was once a larger-than-life figure in Mexico who has been compared to Al Capone and Robin Hood and been the subject of ballads called narcocorridos.
Among the highlights of his lore: how he was known for carrying a gold-plated AK-47; for smuggling cocaine in cans marked as jalapenos; for making shipments using planes with secret landing strips, container ships, speedboats and even submarines.