Mexican drug king pin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman may face trial in Brooklyn, New York on drug-trafficking charges once extradited from Mexico, law enforcement officials said Monday. Prior to the trial, the United States has to come to an agreement not to seek death penalty against Guzman to avoid conflict with Mexico's extradition proceedings.
Guzman has been indicted in Brooklyn, Chicago, Manhattan, Miami and other cities across the United States where his cocaine ring was said to have operated.
The Justice Department determined that of these Brooklyn has the strongest case against Guzman. Other factors, such as availability of credible witnesses and lack of other potential complications, were also considered.
Joaquin Guzman was indicted in a Federal District Court in Brooklyn in 2014 on charges of distributing more than 457,000 kilograms of cocaine.
According to Pix 11, the operations were allegedly carried out between 2002 and 2014 "through a network of corrupt police and political contacts."
The Brooklyn indictment also links Guzman to over a dozen murders and attempted killings.
There's has been no final decision as to the venue of the trial or the finality of El Chapo's extradition to the United States. Nonetheless, the Mexican government gave assurance that they are taking preliminary steps to begin formal extradition proceedings, the New York Times wrote.
However, the alleged leader of the Sinaloa cartel has reportedly sought the prohibition of his transfer in a Mexican court to slow down the process by months.
Aside from the issue of jurisdiction and extradition, another cause of concern for authorities is the issue of security. The recent breakouts from New York's maximum-security state prisons have prompted federal law-enforcement officials to devise a well-thought out plan to secure Guzman.
"The biggest fear would be his access to money [to try to escape from prison], because money can make things happen," said industry consultant Ron McAndrew, as quoted by The Wall Street Journal. "People are bought and sold every day."
Before trial can commence, the United States would have to be careful not to seek death penalty against Guzman if ever he is convicted on capital charges. Mexico does not impose the death penalty, and it will certainly not extradite convicts to the United States if they were only to face the capital punishment.
If convicted, Guzman would most likely serve his sentence in the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, otherwise known as Supermax, located in Colorado. The Supermax houses over 400 convicts which the federal government has considered too dangerous to be joined with other inmates. Some of its well-known inmates are Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and 1994 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef.
