'El Chapo' lawyers say jail conditions 'too strict'
NEW YORK (AP) - Lawyers for Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are complaining that his New York City jail conditions are too strict.
Guzman, who has repeatedly been imprisoned and escaped in Mexico, appeared Friday in a federal court in Brooklyn.
His lawyers say he's on a 23-hour lockdown in a special jail unit. They say jail officials are not allowing Guzman's common-law wife and Mexican lawyer to visit him.
The wife, Emma Coronel, sat in the front of the gallery during Guzman's court appearance. He looked at her and smiled.
The judge declined to weigh in on Guzman's jail conditions.
Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges of running a massive drug trafficking operation that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings.
A judge initially ruled that Guzman would appear by video rather than have marshals escort him to and from a high-security Manhattan jail cell, but his lawyers asked the judge to reconsider.
Guzman has repeatedly been imprisoned and escaped in Mexico. U.S. authorities have pursued him for years.
To get Mexico to hand him over to the U.S., prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. They're demanding he forfeit $14 billion in assets.
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