Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, once all-powerful Mexican drug lord, says he cannot receive phone calls or visits at the maximum-security U.S. prison where he is serving a life sentence.
El Chapo filed his complaint with District Court Judge Brian M. Cogan of the Eastern District of New York in late March, complaining that he was unable to speak with his twin daughters.
“The facility has stopped calling me and my daughters and I have not received calls with them in seven months,” he wrote. “I asked when they were going to call me and my daughters and the staff here told me the FBI agent monitoring the calls wasn't answering, that's all they told me.
“I ask you to allow him to visit me and bring my daughters, because my daughters can only visit me during school holidays, since they are studying in Mexico,” Guzmán wrote.
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Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leader of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City after his capture in the resort town of Mazatlan. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, file)
El Chapo said being barred from receiving outside communications constituted “unprecedented discrimination.”
“This is unprecedented discrimination against me,” Guzmán complained. “They decided to punish me by not letting me talk to my daughters.”
In this Jan. 19, 2017, file photo provided by U.S. law enforcement, authorities escort Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at MacArthur Airport from Long Island, to Ronkonkoma, New York. (US Law Enforcement via AP)
Cogan responded last week, rejecting Guzmán's request.
He added that once the drug lord was found guilty, all arrangements were in the hands of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
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“Accordingly, his application must be dismissed,” the judge said.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by soldiers during a presentation in Mexico City on January 8, 2016. (Reuters/Tomas Bravo/File photo)
Known as Mexico's most notorious drug lord, Guzmán was sentenced in New York on February 12, 2019, for leading an industrial-scale smuggling operation.
He was sentenced to life in prison in July 2019.
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Guzmán led a cartel responsible for smuggling mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States during his 25-year reign, prosecutors said.
Under his leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in the world, was responsible for multiple murders and smuggling operations in the United States.
In this undated photo provided by the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, left, poses with an unidentified man. (United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York)
El Chapo also escaped from several Mexican prisons before being sentenced to life in the most secure prison in the United States – the Administrative Maximum US Penitentiary, or ADX, in Florence, Colorado.
He first escaped from prison in 2001, then spent more than a decade on the run before being recaptured, only to escape again in 2015 via a mile-long tunnel dug in the shower in his cell.
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The Associated Press and Stephanie Pagones of Fox News contributed to this report.