El Chapo Case: US Officials Sued by Sinaloa Cartel Boss Ask to Dismiss 'Mistreatment' Lawsuit for 2nd Time

Lawyers for U.S. officials sued by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera filed a motion Tuesday for the second time to dismiss the lawsuit of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel leader in a Colorado court.

According to Infobae, the officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland and Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal, were forced to file their petition again because Judge William Martinez told them last week that the first petition had been incorrectly filed.

The officials again said that El Chapo's complaints about alleged "cruel and unfair" treatment at the ADX "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado are unfounded and do not amount to "any abuse," the Associated Press reported.

The defendants stressed that the former Sinaloa Cartel leader was not "a prisoner like any other." They added that the Supreme Court and appeals courts had already rejected the same allegations of mistreatment and harsh conditions in prison by El Chapo.

The defendants also requested that the time limit set for presenting evidence in the case be suspended. In the first request to dismiss the case, Martinez told the defendants that the appeal had not been presented correctly because both parties should first try to reach an agreement to address El Chapo's complaints and see if a solution could be reached.

But in their second request to dismiss the case, lawyers for the defendants said no settlement had been reached. El Chapo filed the lawsuit against Garland, Carvajal, and others last year when he revealed that he was suffering from psychological problems due to how he was treated in the maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo Says His Complaints Are Getting Ignored

The infamous Sinaloa Cartel boss is currently imprisoned in one of the most secure prisons in the United States. In a seven-page letter he previously sent to Garland and Carvajal and was included in his lawsuit, El Chapo complained about being mistreated in the ADX "supermax" prison.

He said the treatment he received in the maximum-security prison was "cruel and unfair," and it was taking a toll on his health. El Chapo wrote in English that due to the treatment at the prison, he now suffers from "headaches, memory loss, muscle cramps, stress, and depression."

He also made several demands, such as being able to communicate with other inmates verbally. El Chapo claimed that since arriving in the U.S., he had not been allowed to speak to his wife.

The long list of his complaints also includes being served little food, the "extremely hot" temperature that makes his blood pressure rise, and suffering from a fungal infection in his foot due to sharing nail clippers with other inmates.

The Sinaloa Cartel boss added that prison officials enter his cell "several times a week to do routine searches when they move and touch all my belongings." El Chapo then asked to be treated better and that the conditions in his cell be improved.

The Case of Sinaloa Cartel Boss El Chapo

The Sinaloa Cartel is considered one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking syndicates. The Mexican drug cartel has been known for carrying out assassinations, murders, and torture to protect its turf.

The group was founded in the late 1980s and headed by El Chapo. The Mexican drug kingpin was arrested and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in 1993.

El Chapo escaped from prison in 2001 and was apprehended again in 2014 in Sinaloa, Mexico. He again escaped from prison through a tunnel the following year.

In January 2016, Mexican officials announced that El Chapo has been captured again. He was extradited to the U.S. the following year.

El Chapo is serving a life sentence in prison after being found guilty in 2019 of all 10 federal charges he faced. He was accused of illegally importing millions of kilos of cocaine from Mexico to the U.S., along with significant quantities of heroin and marijuana.

In January, a federal appeals court in New York upheld the life sentence of El Chapo after his request for a new trial was dismissed.

In their decision, the three judges rejected some of El Chapo's arguments, including jury bias, "deplorable" jail conditions, and the U.S. government selectively targeting him for prosecution.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court junked the request of the Sinaloa cartel leader to review his case. His lawyers filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in April, and the high court reportedly rejected the petition without comment.

El Chapo's legal team cited two reasons for granting the petition for a writ of certiorari. The first was more technical and related to violations of an extradition treaty. The second had something to do with El Chapo's complaints about "pretrial restraints."

El Chapo's lawyers noted that "certiorari is also warranted because excessive and punitive pretrial restraints impaired petitioner's right to counsel, a defense, and due process of law."

They maintained that the pretrial confinement of the Sinaloa Cartel leader was beyond "draconian." El Chapo's lawyers argued that the "series of pyramiding constraints" and "tower of expanding restraints" robbed the Sinaloa Cartel boss of the ability to "mount a defense" and get a fair trial.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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