2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15
The selection of the 12 members of the jury to judge the confessed Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán Loera began this Monday morning in Brooklyn federal court amid extensive security measures and enormous media expectation.
Dozens of journalists and cameramen crowded into the rain outside the courthouse building in downtown Brooklyn, while defense attorneys and federal prosecutor representatives began the crucial task of finding the anonymous citizens who should decide a case with very few precedents.
"It is as if the United States government were prosecuting Pablo Escobar," Brookings Institute expert on international drug trafficking and criminal organizations Vanda Felbab-Brown told the Los Angeles Times.
The federal prosecution accuses Guzmán of leading a complex criminal organization based in Sinaloa that for three decades and by brutal methods - including thousands of murders - managed to enter the United States drug shipments valued in the afternoon. In addition, their names will remain anonymous for the duration of the process, an exceptional measure.
To prevent him from escaping a third time, US authorities have avoided taking any risks. Since his extradition in January 2017, the kingpin has been held in solitary confinement at the Manhattan federal detention center, which is considered the safest in New York. These measures, says the accused, have seriously affected his health.
Every time he has to attend a court hearing on the other side of the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge is closed to allow the security convoy that transports him at full speed.
After the selection of the jury, the trial itself will begin on November 13 with the allegations of the prosecution and the defense, which until now has argued that the rights of its client have not been respected and have questioned whether it was in fact the head of the cartel.
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