Notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman will have an anonymous jury at his US trial later this year.
In a written order, US District Judge Brian Cogan agreed with prosecutors who argued that withholding the names of jurors was needed to address any fears that they could be harassed or intimidated.
Jurors also will be escorted to and from the Brooklyn courthouse by deputy US marshals and sequestered from the public while inside, the judge said.
Prosecutors offered ‘strong and credible reasons’ why the jury needs protections, including Guzman’s use of sicarios, or hitmen, to carry out thousands of acts of violence over more than two decades, the judge wrote in the order, released by the prosecutor’s office on Tuesday.
Notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman will have an anonymous jury at his US trial later this year. Guzman is seen above during his extradition to the US from Mexico in January 2017
In court papers, prosecutors cited media reports about a YouTube video made last year by a group of federal prisoners in California in which they boasted in Spanish that they were ‘hitmen’ at the service of El Chapo (seen above in 2014)
That history ‘would be sufficient to warrant an anonymous and partially sequestered jury, but that many of the allegations involve murder, assault, kidnapping or torture of potential witnesses or of those suspected of assisting law enforcement makes the government’s concerns particularly salient,’ he said.
Guzman’s attorney, Eduardo Balarezo, said on Tuesday that his client was disappointed by the ruling.
The defense had argued that an anonymous jury would give the false impression that Guzman is dangerous.
‘All he is asking for is a fair trial in front of an impartial jury,’ Balarezo said in a statement.
Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges of running a massive international drug trafficking operation.
Since his extradition in January 2017, he has been held in solitary confinement at a high-security federal jail in Manhattan, with US officials mindful of how he twice escaped from prison in Mexico, the second time via a mile-long tunnel dug to the shower in his cell.
In the past, Guzman used his connections to continue to run his drug empire from behind bars, prosecutors said.
Anonymous juries have been used in other high-profile cases, including the trials of Gambino mob boss John Gotti (left) and George Zimmerman (right), the security guard who fatally shot African-American teen Trayvon Martin
They also claim that in the United States, Guzman had the support of criminals who are not under his direct control.
In court papers, prosecutors cited media reports about a YouTube video made last year – and since removed from the internet – by a group of federal prisoners in California in which they boasted in Spanish that they were ‘hitmen’ at his service.
On the recording, their faces were concealed with pieces of clothing and sunglasses.
One was heard assuring Guzman ‘everything is ready for you. What you say is the law. Here you have more than 3,500 soldiers.’
‘We are the hitmen who are going to take care of him,’ one of the inmates said in Spanish.
Guzman is due back in court on February 15 for a pretrial hearing.
The judge has indicated he expects the trial to begin in the fall.
Anonymous juries have been used in other high-profile cases, including the trial of Gambino mob boss John Gotti; a police officer charged in the murder of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray; and George Zimmerman, the security guard who fatally shot African-American teen Trayvon Martin.
In October of 2016, surveillance video captured horrifying footage of an assassin who shot a Mexican federal judge involved in a case related to El Chapo point blank in the head as he was jogging near his home
There appears to be good reason to keep the jury anonymous in the El Chapo case as well, since the cartels have shown they are willing to use brutal violence to anyone standing in their way.
On Monday, a Mexican woman who used social media to voice her positions against alleged drug traffickers was fatally shot in Acapulco.
Pamela Montenegro del Real, 36, who is best known as Nana Pelucas, was gunned down by two men Monday evening in the beach resort near the Pacific Ocean.
This was the second time in less than two months that a Mexican YouTuber.
Montenegro had a channel on YouTube, called El Sillón Tv, on which she used to interview public officials and express her political views.
Her assailants fled the scene and a motive has not yet been determined.
However, local media reported that Montenegro could have been assassinated by drug cartels because of her social media content.
On Monday, a Mexican woman who used social media to voice her positions against alleged drug traffickers was fatally shot in Acapulco. Pamela Montenegro del Real, 36, who is best known as Nana Pelucas, was gunned down by two men Monday evening
Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales was shot dead in in December 2017 after insulting drug lord El Mencho on his YouTube channel
In late December, a teenage YouTuber who insulted a notorious drug lord was shot dead.
On his video, a drunk 17-year-old Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales is heard saying ‘El Mencho can suck my d**k’ to Nemesio Ocegera Cervantes.
The drug lord known as ‘El Mencho,’ one of Mexico’s most dangerous, is the leader of the New Generation Cartel in Jalisco.
In October of 2016, surveillance video captured horrifying footage of an assassin who shot a Mexican federal judge involved in a case related to El Chapo point blank in the head as he was jogging near his home.
Judge Vincente Bermudez Zacarias was shot in the head at point blank range while jogging near his home in Metepec, a town located about 43 miles from Mexico City, according to news agencies.
The judge was on the bench during appeals by Guzman, who at the time was in prison for his role as the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as Miguel Trevino, the former leader of the Zetas cartel.
The shooting prompted the Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, to hold a news conference and vowing an investigation by his attorney general.