1 STAR RATING

El Chapo Compares His Prison Conditions to ‘Torture’ at Sentencing

The convicted drug kingpin complained about being denied fresh air and sunlight before he was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.

Just before he was sentenced to life in U.S. prison in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday, Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman took some time to complain about his jail conditions. Speaking to Judge Brian Cogan, Guzman said his lockup has been absolute “torture,” the New York Post reports. “I’ve been forced to drink unsanitary water. I’ve been denied access to fresh air and sunlight. The only sunlight I have in my cell comes through in the air vent,” Guzman said, speaking through his lawyer Eduardo Balarezo, who translated. “My wife has not been allowed to this day to visit me, I have not been allowed to hug my daughters. I have been physically, psychologically, mentally tortured 24 hours a day,” Guzman continued, adding that he had to plug his ears with toilet paper in order to sleep. Guzman has been in solitary confinement at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center since his extradition to New York in 2017.

He was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years on Wednesday, and prosecutors have requested he be sent to Colorado’s ADX Florence—the only super-maximum security prison in the U.S.