Is Joaquim 'El Chapo' Guzman Loera at it, again? The Mexican drug lord and head of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, who is at a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, serving a lifer and more, has written a letter to the New York Judge who sentenced him complaining of “discriminatory” treatment. The I-Team of the website ABC7 Chicago News and Weather has reported that the nearly four-page letter, written in March, was translated into English and posted in his court file only recently.
The conditions in the impregnable prison, where he is watched almost round the clock, “are inhuman”, writes El Chapo (the Short One). “I have been here for nine months, and have spoken to my attorney only nine times,” he writes. “This is discriminatory.” The letter is addressed to Judge Brian Cogan, who heard his case in New York.
There has also been a mention of some procedural courtesies, even though the case concluded some time ago. While the letter in itself may not produce any results, experts who have been tracking his career are wondering whether Guzman has something else up his sleeve. Because the last time he complained of poor facilities and discrimination, it was a precursor to his escape from Altiplano maximum security federal prison in Mexico.
Escape from Altiplano
In a daring escape that is reminiscent of the climax of The Shawshank Redemption, Guzman orchestrated the prison break in 2015 with the outside help of his wife Emma Coronel, sons, and Damaso Lopez, a cartel associate who later became an approver and testified against his former boss.
According to Lopez, Guzman's attorney would deliver notes from the gangster, whom Lopez called “mi compadre” (my friend), which he would, in turn, convey to Coronel. His wife too would receive messages from Guzman during her visits to him in prison. Guzman instructed them to purchase weapons, a pickup truck, a piece of land near the prison, and rent a warehouse.
Guzman's sons – Joaquin Jr., Alfredo, Ivan, and Ovidio—bought the land and dug a tunnel to Guzman’s prison cell. He escaped from the cell to the tunnel where a motorcycle and a driver awaited him. The tunnel was equipped with lighting, ventilation and even had a rail for the motorcycle. The escape reportedly took 30 minutes.
They drove through the tunnel to the piece of land from where Guzman was taken to a warehouse. He then travelled to another city, where a plane took him to a safe hideout near his hometown Sinaloa.
He was arrested again in January 2016 and was extradited to the United States in 2017.
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The escape from Altiplano was not his first prison break—he escaped from Mexico's Puente Grande maximum-security prison after bribing the prison officials. While the official account has it that he was smuggled out of the prison in a laundry cart by a prison official, journalist Anabel Hernandez, among others, in his book Narcoland, claims that Guzman simply walked out of the prison.
Can 'El Chapo' do it again?
The letter has caused prison officials to believe that the drug lord might be planning another escape. He is currently lodged in SuperMax prison in Colorado, known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies."
But the SuperMax prison, or ADX Florence Prison, is no Mexico jail. Hailed as a 'high-tech version of hell', it houses some of the most notorious and high-profile criminals, including serial killers, mobsters, cult leaders, and drug kingpins.
The inmates live in near-continuous solitary confinement with hardly any activities, little contact with other inmates or time outside their cells. Located on 37 acres of land, the cells of this prison are specifically designed to make sure that the inmates do not know their location in the complex. All that they can see is the sky and the roof through the window slits in the prison, making it next to impossible to plan an escape; and no one ever has done it so far.
Prisoners are under 24-hour supervision, and there is high inmate-staff ratio, motion detectors, cameras, and as many as 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors. Heavily armed guards patrol the compound and there is 12-foot razor-wire fence surrounding the compound.
Why is the letter significant?
While it is not likely that El Chapo will script history by becoming the first man to break out of ADX Florence Prison, there is a reason why those tracking the career criminal feel that he may have something else up his sleeve. The letter comes after reports that Coronel, who played a major role in his 2015 prison break, has been moved to a halfway house in California before her eventual release in September. The letter comes barely a few months before her release.
Thirty-four-year-old Coronel, a former teen beauty queen, got married to Guzman when she was 18. She was convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering charges in 2021 and was sentenced to three years in prison. She had pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, conspiring to launder money, and assisting the multibillion-dollar drug empire of her husband. She was also fined $1.5 million.