Billionaire drug lord El Chapo pens letter from prison, irked about lack of freedom
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The imprisoned kingpin whose cartel controls most of Chicago's illicit drugs, according to law enforcement, has sent a letter from his jail cell obtained by the I-Team.
El Chapo is locked up for life at the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. He somehow survived a ferocious firefight that preceded his arrest seven years ago. He was under indictment for drug trafficking at the time in Chicago but ended up extradited to New York. He was tried in Brooklyn where he also faced federal charges.
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The 66-year old, born Joaquin Guzman, is in isolation with limited privileges. In a hand-written letter, he says he is not happy about the conditions of his daily life.
The three-and-a-half page letter penned in March was recently translated and posted in English in his court file. It asks for some procedural courtesies in his case, even though it is long over.
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El Chapo also complains that the "conditions [here] are inhuman." He writes that he's "been in for a year and have only been authorized 9 telephone calls to my attorney." Chapo states that "[This is] highly discriminatory."
Investigators say El Chapo once told them he had killed 2,000 to 3,000 people. Whether an understatement or not, authorities say the iron-fist leader of the Sinaloa cartel has had more people die worldwide from his products: cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine's and other illicit drugs.
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The letter from Chapo was addressed to the New York federal judge who heard his case, Chicago native Brian Cogan. U.S. District Judge Cogan received his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1975.
In the letter to Judge Cogan, El Chapo sends a sorrowful postscript stating that his letter was delayed because "it's been more than one month since I've been able to get a stamp. I hope that something is deposited in my commissary so that I can submit my letter."
