Unsealed documents made public just as jury is about to start deliberations in Joaquín Guzmán’s drug-trafficking case

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Unsealed documents about the Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán contain claims by witnesses that he engaged in sexual acts with minors he called “vitamins”. The disturbing allegation comes just as a jury is about to start deliberating in the US drug-trafficking case.

Betrayal, torture and a $100m bribe: what the El Chapo trial has revealed Read more

According to papers made public late on Friday, a key government cooperator told authorities Guzmán had him drug girls as young as 13 before Guzmán coerced them into sexual activities at one of his Mexican hideouts in the late 2000s.

One of Guzmán’s lawyers called the accusations “extremely salacious” and questioned the timing of the government filing.

Guzmán “denies the allegations, which lack any corroboration and were deemed too prejudicial and unreliable to be admitted at trial,” attorney Eduardo Balarezo said in a statement on Saturday. “It is unfortunate that the material was publicly released just prior to the jury beginning deliberations.”

Among responses Guzmán’s defense team could now consider are questioning the jury before they are handed the case or moving for a mistrial, on grounds that the jury has been tainted by information not admitted into evidence while the government was making its case.

Speaking to the Guardian on Sunday, Balarezo said the defense was “very disturbed”.

Asked if it believed the new accusations were designed to affect the jury, Balarezo said the defense would “address the merits of it in court” on Monday, when jurors are due to begin deliberations.

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After a prosecution that spanned 11 weeks and saw 56 witnesses describe how Guzmán ran his cocaine empire with an iron fist, the defense rested after calling just one witness.

It lasted 30 minutes. Expectations that the defendant might take the stand were not realised.

As head of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzmán is charged with overseeing a drug-smuggling empire that flooded the US with at least 200 tons of cocaine and made $14bn. The defense says cooperating witnesses have made Guzman a scapegoat for their own crimes.

The unsealing of the documents came at the request of the New York Times and Vice. US district judge Brian Cogan had ordered prosecutors to review the material – sealed because it was deemed unrelated to the drugs charges – and make portions of it public within four days of the government resting its case.

One document says Colombian drug trafficker Alex Cifuentes, while living with Guzmán around 2007, told investigators someone known as Comadre Maria would offer photos of young girls to Guzman. For $5,000, a girl of Guzmán’s choice would be sent to a secluded Sinaloa ranch, Cifuentes said, according to the papers.

Guzmán directed Cifuentes to put a “powdery substance” into the girls’ drinks before sex, said Cifuentes. Guzmán “called the youngest of the girls his ‘vitamins’ because he believed that sexual activity with young girls gave him ‘life’,” he added.

Cifuentes admitted to having sex with minors without drugging them. The document says other cooperating witnesses have backed up the claims about Guzmán’s interactions with underage girls.

The cooperator told the government he saw Guzmán “consulting with a witch doctor from whom he obtained snake oils”, the papers said.

The documents also describe an interview with Guzmán conducted by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1998 at a Mexican prison which Guzmán escaped two years later. They say he allegedly asked if he could avoid extradition to the US if he provided information about rival cartels.