Judge rips lawyer for 'El Chapo' as trial finishes second day in New York

Kevin McCoy | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption The most serious charges against drug Lord 'El Chapo' After his extradition to the US from Mexico, drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera pleaded not guilty to a 17-count indictment. Video provided by Newsy

NEW YORK – A judge rejected a prosecution request Wednesday to throw out the opening statement presented by a lawyer for accused Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, but he lectured the attorney for making claims that won't be supported by trial evidence.

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Cogan issued the ruling during the second day of the trial unfolding under heavy security at Brooklyn federal court.

Prosecutors objected to defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman's characterization of Guzmán on Tuesday as a fall guy for corrupt Mexican officials and a man he dubbed the world’s biggest drug dealer.

Lichtman argued that reputed drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada remained free because he paid hundreds of millions of dollars to the current and former presidents of Mexico — allegations both men have since denied.

The prosecutors objected to Lichtman's argument that the federal government unfairly singled out Guzman for prosecution based on his notoriety.

The judge largely agreed.

“Your opening statement handed out a promissory note that your case is not going to cash,” Cogan lectured the defense lawyer.

But throwing out the defense opening statement would be a step too far, the judge said. He told the jury to focus on the evidence against the alleged ex-leader of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, and disregard some of the defense team's references to "particularly outrageous" conduct by the United States.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, weighed in, condemning the defense claims against them as false and defamatory.

"Mr. Lichtman’s opening statement was permeated with improper argument, unnoticed affirmative defenses and inadmissible hearsay," prosecutors said in a letter to the judge. "The Court should strike it, and instruct the jury to disregard it."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Fels described Guzmán in his opening statement Tuesday as a cunning businessman who revolutionized narcotics trafficking to the United States.

Guzmán rose from a small-time marijuana dealer in Mexico to moving tons of cocaine, heroin and other drugs from South America and his native land through a network of secret tunnels beneath the southern U.S. border, Fels told jurors.

On Wednesday, prosecutors showed jurors evidence of one such tunnel that a witness said ran roughly 50 yards from a house just south of the border into southern Arizona.

The tunnel was equipped with electric lights and was hidden below a section of flooring that was raised and lowered by a mechanical piston system in the house in Mexico.

Carlos Salazar, a retired investigator for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told jurors of the U.S. discovery in 1990 of a roughly 1-ton cocaine shipment linked to the tunnel.

Salazar's testimony provided no direct connection of the shipment to Guzmán.

However, Jesus Zambada, the brother of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and an admitted member of the Sinaloa cartel, testified that Guzmán was one of the alleged crime organization's leaders.

The defendant, wearing a dark suit, subdued tie and a light purple shirt, waved to his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, as he entered the courtroom Wednesday. He repeatedly gazed in her direction while listening to trial testimony from Spanish-speaking interpreters who took turns sitting beside him.

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Guzman is charged with 17 criminal counts, including drug trafficking, conspiring to murder rivals, money laundering and weapons offense.

Nicknamed "El Chapo," or "Shorty," for his 5-foot-6 stature, he built an organization that used trucks, planes, trains and even a submarine to speed drugs into the exploding U.S. market for more than three decades, reaping billions of dollars in profits, Fels said.

When rivals, government informers or others got in his way, Guzman had them captured, tortured and killed, sometimes wielding his diamond-encrusted pistol or gold-plated AK-47 automatic rifle, Fels said.

Fels said the jury would see and hear Guzman on secret videos and audiotapes "running his narco empire in his own words."

What to know about 'El Chapo' Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is known for daring prison escapes.

The trial is one of the highest-security court proceedings in New York City since the terrorism prosecutions of suspects in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and a related plot to bomb city landmarks.

Federal agents with bomb-detecting dogs checked the courthouse near Brooklyn's DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods, while NYPD Emergency Services Unit officers and other security personnel checked the building.

Guzman was brought to New York in January 2017 after Mexican authorities authorized his extradition to face trial in Brooklyn. He has been held in solitary confinement in Manhattan's high-security Metropolitan Correctional Center, where all of his activities are carefully monitored.

Contributing: John Bacon, USA TODAY, Associated Press

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kevin McCoy on Twitter: @kmccoynyc