U.S. prosecutors are alleging that a lawyer for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been enabling the criminal to contact his wife, Emma Coronel.
The prosecutors have filed a motion with U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan to place sanctions on Guzman’s defense team.
Guzman’s lawyers were have not been available for comment, while the motion itself has the bulk of it’s information redacted.
The motion suggest that some individuals, “appear to have used cellular telephones in concert with an attorney visit to the defendant following two trial days last week to facilitate unauthorized and, under the SAMs, impermissible contact between the defendant and Ms. Coronel.”
The drug lord is likely headed for life in prison. This combined with Guzman’s previous escapes from Mexcian prisons and history of intimidating witnesses has lead to extreme security being put into place called special administrative measures or SAMs.
Judge Cogan has admitted that Coronel was seen using a cell phone in the courthouse, which violates court rules. However on of Guzman’s lawyers explained to the judge that Coronel was only using Google Translate to follow the proceedings as her provided headset linked to the interpreter was malfunctioning.
Yet after video review the new claims were made that Coronel was making contact with Guzman.
Prosecutors hope to prove Guzman responsible for massive drug shipments into the U.S. made under his leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Defendants state they can prove their client was framed by a different drug lord, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.