El Chapo docked for the biggest US drug lawsuit

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is to be tried Monday in New York, accused of leading the world's largest drug cartel and having spent more than a quarter century fraud over 155 tons of cocaine in the United States.

The gigantic lawsuit in a federal court in Brooklyn, which will cost millions of dollars and is expected to last more than four months, will see one of the world's most notorious criminals face the American justice system.

Prosecutors spent years preparing a full case against Guzman, extradited in 2017 after escaping twice from Mexico City jail – first hidden in a laundry trolley, then slid into a tunnel leading to his shower.

Guzman is considered the greatest drug lord in the world since the Colombian Pablo Escobar, nicknamed "The King of Cocaine" and who was one of the richest men in the world until the police shot him in 1993.

Experts say the government has an almost leaky record that could send Guzman, 61, to a maximum-security prison in the United States for the rest of his life. But at what cost?

"Will that prevent an extra pound of cocaine from entering the US? Probably not. The machine continues to roll," says Rob Heroy, a North Carolina lawyer who has defended the law. other Mexican drug barons.

The Sinaloa cartel founded by Guzman in 1989 is still powerful. His co-defendant, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, is still on the run and violent drug trafficking continues unabated in Mexico.

Last year, there were a record 29,000 murders in Mexico. In the United States, opioid addiction has turned into an epidemic. In 2016, an average of 174 Americans died each day as a result of a drug overdose.

– "The most expensive essay in history" –

The selection of the jury will be done under conditions of security reserved to the most dangerous accused. Judge Brian Cogan of the US District Court will chair the process in camera.

The 12 jurors, with six substitutes, will remain anonymous. The US Marshals will escort them every day to court.

These ordinary men and women will determine if Guzman – the tiny father of two children whose nickname means "shorty" – is guilty or not of 11 counts of trafficking, guns and money laundering.

According to the indictment, the Sinaloa cartel, which Guzman is accused of directing from 1989 to 2014, has become "the largest drug trafficking organization in the world … with thousands of members" .

US prosecutors claimed that between 1989 and 2014, the cartel had introduced at least 340,892 pounds (154,626 kilograms) of cocaine into the United States, as well as heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana, bringing in $ 14 billion.

Guzman pleads not guilty, but the government has presented so much evidence – over 300,000 pages and at least 117,000 audio recordings – that the defense complains that it has not had the time to review it all.

Heroy estimates that the lawsuit will cost US taxpayers "more than $ 50 million", a price that includes protection programs for at least a few of the hundreds of witnesses expected.

"It's probably the most expensive trial in US history," he told AFP.

Even Guzman's lawyers are unaware of any former associates, employees or rivals who have turned informants.

– Informers –

Some of the informants have already been absorbed by the US witness protection program, given the new identities and new homes in the country. Others are already in prison, housed in special wings to protect them from reprisals.

If cooperation with the government can put their lives and those of their families at risk, it can also help to reduce their own sentences.

"Nobody is going to have pictures of him (Guzman) carrying cocaine, taking the suitcase with money," Heroy said. "The case is going to be based on these informants."

Guzman is being held in solitary confinement in New York since Mexico extradited him in January 2017, a day before Donald Trump took office. He spends 23 hours a day in his cell.

The only visitors to whom he is allowed are his three lawyers and his seven-year-old twin daughters, from whom he is separated by a thick glass screen.

The judge has forbidden her beauty queen, 29-year-old Emma Coronel, to visit her. Instead, she attended almost all of her pre-trial hearings, waving her hand and kisses her from the gallery.

Arrested for the first time in Guatemala in 1993, El Chapo spent more than seven years in a Mexican prison before his first escape in 2001.

Re-arrested by the Mexican Marines in February 2014, he escaped again 14 months later.

Guzman was captured again in January 2016 after visiting Hollywood actor Sean Penn and a Mexican actress, who wanted to make a film about his life, allowed the Mexican authorities to trace him.

This time, Mexico decided to wash their hands and put it in an airplane.