El Chapo trial: New York prepares ‘unprecedented’ security as hearings for ‘most feared man on the planet’ set to begin

'The government saw fit to charge him in the United States, now they have to prove it. It’s time to put up or shut up', Mr Guzmán's lawyer tells The Independent

Mr Guzman’s trial is set to begin on Tuesday (AFP/Getty)

New York City is preparing for a uniquely challenging trial for alleged Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, with security concerns necessitating a police effort unseen in decades – if ever – to maintain order while protecting witnesses, New Yorkers and the defendant himself.

Guzman’s trial is set to begin on Tuesday in Brooklyn, where he faces a 17 count indictment that covers nearly three decades of alleged criminal activities. Those charges include crimes related to the building of a multibillion-dollar narcotics empire – including murder, violence and physical intimidation. Guzman, 61, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Police say the trial is perhaps the most high risk in the city since the one two decades ago of the individuals who planned and carried out the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings. Guzman, before extradition to the US last year from Mexico, had successfully escaped from two maximum security prisons. One of those escapes included crawling through an elaborate tunnel that had been built to run right up to his cell.

“In some ways, this case is unprecedented,” US district judge Brian M Cogan wrote recently. “The amount of public attention has been extraordinary.”

Guzman – considered by some to be the most feared man in the world and called the “most powerful drug trafficker in the world” – has been accused of trafficking more than 440,000 pounds of cocaine while maintaining power over the massive Sinaloa Cartel through any means necessary, including murders, kidnappings and torture in some cases.

His trial is expected to last four months, and the 12 juror panel that will be considering the mountains of evidence the prosecution plans on presenting was cut down from nearly 1,000 potential panellists.

Prospective jurors were asked whether or not they know who Guzman is, whether they have looked him up on the internet or watched the coverage of the man in television dramas. Almost all of them said they knew of Guzman but could remain impartial.

The US federal government is hoping to use those hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence alongside more than 100,000 audio recordings to seize as much as $14bn in assets from the accused drug lord, while keeping the man in prison for the rest of his life.

Guzman’s lawyer, Eduardo Balarezo, confirmed that his client has no plans to reach a deal with the feds.

"Joaquin is not interested in pleading guilty, cooperating with the government or seeking any benefit in exchange for his testimony as as have all the cooperators who will testify against him at trial," Mr Balarezo told The Independent when reached by email for comment. "The government saw fit to charge him in the United States, now they have to prove it. It’s time to put up or shut up".

In jail, Guzman is said to have behaved well and mostly kept to himself since he was transferred into the United States earlier this year. He had escaped prison a number of times in Mexico, the last in July 2015, before he was recaptured in 2016.

Guzman is perceived by some as a hero, with many narcocorridos (drug ballads) that glorify kingpins written in his honour.

Beyond New York, Guzman faces charges in 10 legal cases in Mexico, as well as federal charges in Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New Hampshire.

It is unclear what defence strategy may be used in Mr Guzmán’s trial in New York, but it has previously been asserted that the government witnesses cannot be trusted and that Guzman was not as high up in the Sinaloa drug cartel as the government says.

The case provides further complications than just security concerns in New York, and prosecutors will reportedly need to tread lightly as they make their case against Guzman in order to protect sensitive information about how American intelligence operations work with relation to the cartels.

Ahead of the trial, high-tech scanners were installed in the federal courthouse in Brooklyn where Guzman will have his day in court. The defendant himself will be held in a specially designed cell within the courthouse itself, so that officials will no longer need to transport him from his current downtown holding facility in Manhattan.

Bomb-sniffing dogs are also expected to patrol the area outside of the courthouse, and entire blocks will be closed off on some days during the trial.