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<\/p>\nAs the top boss of Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa cartel, Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n ran a multinational drug-smuggling enterprise despite being functionally illiterate, having dropped out of school around the third grade.<\/p>\n
Evidence presented at El Chapo\u2019s trial, which ended in 2019 with his conviction and a sentence of life in U.S. prison with no parole, showed that he tended to scribble messages to underlings in broken Spanish. <\/p>\n
So when a series of letters, handwritten in English and allegedly signed by El Chapo, recently began arriving at the federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., they posed a mystery. Did El Chapo really write them? And if not, who was writing on his behalf?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York received a letter, left, on June 23, 2026, purportedly signed by imprisoned Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman. He sent the federal court in Brooklyn a handwritten message in Spanish, right, on July 15, 2025.<\/p>\n
(Eastern District Court of New York )<\/p>\n
More than 20 letters attributed to El Chapo have been received by the court, with the first dated April 10 and the latest posted Tuesday on his case docket in the Eastern District of New York. <\/p>\n
They have voiced a litany of complaints about the unfairness of El Chapo\u2019s prosecution and requested that he be sent back to Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did no harm to no one,\u201d said one, dated April 25. \u201cI was known in my country not for bad things, the good things I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letters have drawn mockery and outrage online, with Mexican citizens fuming over the notorious drug lord, who twice escaped from prison in his home country, apparently having the gall to think he could be set free.<\/p>\n
Others wondered whether El Chapo somehow managed to learn English behind bars, or whether he was perhaps using the public court filings to send coded messages that enabled him to continue calling the shots for his cartel.<\/p>\n
The messages carry the return address of ADX Florence, the maximum-security federal prison in Colorado where the onetime kingpin is housed in strict isolation. His attorneys, however, note that the envelopes were postmarked in Jackson, Miss., not Colorado. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not him,\u201d Mariel Col\u00f3n Mir\u00f3, a member of El Chapo\u2019s defense team, told The Times. \u201cWe have an investigation into who is sending them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Col\u00f3n Mir\u00f3 emphasized that she and other attorneys who represent El Chapo played no part in sending the messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s somebody crazy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A U.S. law enforcement source familiar with El Chapo\u2019s case but not authorized to speak publicly called the letters \u201ccomplete bull\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot from him,\u201d the source said. \u201cProbably someone mentally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though often rambling and incoherent, the letters have taken up the court\u2019s time. Judge Brian Cogan, who presided over El Chapo\u2019s trial, responded to the first five letters received by the court with a May 4 order denying their requests. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of these documents make no sense and none of them have any legal merit,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n
Still, the letters keep coming. One this month seemed to offer a clue and, like the others, included words underlined seemingly at random. <\/p>\n
Postmarked June 10, it said that \u201cthe letters that are being received to the courts is my legal petition of Aubrey Gideon in Greenwood, MS 38930 is his rights and the connection with my lawyer on fighting for my freedom in the U.S.A.\u201d <\/p>\n
Public records show an Aubrey Gideon has lived in the town of Greenwood and was convicted of cocaine possession in 2009. Messages sent to email addresses associated with Gideon went unreturned, and several phone numbers listed for him were out of service.<\/p>\n
In December 2022, Gideon sent a letter to the Mississippi Supreme Court that said he had been \u201csuspended\u201d from visiting the post office in Greenwood over some type of incident. Gideon asked the state\u2019s high court to intervene on his behalf. <\/p>\n
The Mississippi letter references a local judge, Carlos Palmer, who told The Times that he couldn\u2019t recall what precipitated Gideon\u2019s missive. Palmer said Gideon is a fixture on the streets of their town.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Gideon walks around downtown Greenwood every single day,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what his circumstances is. He\u2019s been in court several times for several situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s highly unlikely that El Chapo has been able to communicate with Gideon \u2014 or anyone else outside of his attorneys and his two teenage daughters, who are the only ones approved to visit and speak with him under restrictions known as Special Administrative Measures.<\/p>\n
In July 2024, El Chapo filed a civil rights lawsuit in the District of Colorado federal court seeking to lift the measures and improve the conditions of his confinement.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a typical day,\u201d one court filing said, El Chapo \u201chas no contact with a single other human being who shares a language in which they can communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n
El Chapo said he has been unable to get adequate sleep and experiences \u201cnear-constant severe sinus, ear, nose, and throat pain,\u201d which he attributed to hot air being frequently pumped into his cell. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am suffering from severe sleep deprivation as a result of being woken up repeatedly throughout the night, every night by this hot air,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He also told the court he does not receive any counseling inside the prison. \u201cI have no one to help me cope with the effects and trauma of solitary confinement,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
A judge dismissed the lawsuit on June 9.<\/p>\n
A pro bono attorney appointed by the court to represent El Chapo in the case, David Lane, said they plan to file a new complaint on his behalf. Lane said the extreme isolation is unconstitutional, violating the 8th Amendment\u2019s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has not seen actual sunshine or felt the sun on his skin in years,\u201d Lane said. \u201cHe does get outside exercise in a cage, but it\u2019s in the shade.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Lane and court filings in the Eastern District of New York, for a time El Chapo was able to communicate with a prisoner in a neighboring cell by shouting through the walls.<\/p>\n
That inmate, identified in court filings as James \u201cJimmy\u201d Sabatino \u2014 a reputed Gambino crime family associate sentenced to prison in 2017 for stealing millions worth of jewelry through an elaborate con \u2014 wrote to the Brooklyn federal court as well, in November last year. <\/p>\n
Sabatino described how he and El Chapo were housed next to each other in an ultra-secure part of ADX, an area he dubbed \u201cThe Suites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabatino wrote that, although he spoke little Spanish and El Chapo barely any English, they were able to strike up a friendship. Sabatino said he saw \u201cthe sensitive side\u201d of the convicted drug lord emerge during difficult moments, such as the death of El Chapo\u2019s mother in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen his mental health rapidly deteriorate, [and it] has gotten to the point that I fear for him,\u201d Sabatino wrote. \u201cHe has trouble communicating and putting his thoughts in a coherent manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, Sabatino sent a letter to the court asking to withdraw his request to be granted \u201cnext friend\u201d status.<\/p>\n
Lane said the two men were separated by prison officials and can no longer communicate with each other.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, El Chapo\u2019s other letter-writing supporter has not given up on pushing the court to send him home. The latest message referenced Mexico\u2019s president, and noted that the imprisoned cartel leader has not attempted \u201cany type of escaping from the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClaudia Sheinbaum has a safe place for my incarceration,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the top boss of Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa cartel, Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n ran a multinational drug-smuggling enterprise despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1052,151695,13509,151699,3622,151697,51724,81203,7337,43365,48,52,51,1838,47,50,49,4446,2901,151698,151696],"class_list":["post-374346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-attorney","tag-aubrey-gideon","tag-brooklyn","tag-carlos-palmer","tag-court","tag-david-lane","tag-eastern-district","tag-el-chapo","tag-federal-court","tag-greenwood","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-letter","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-message","tag-prison","tag-public-court-filing","tag-sabatino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}