Lawyers representing Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán have complained that the Mexican drug kingpin is being subjected to excessively strict conditions in federal jail as he awaits trial.



The strict conditions were described by defense lawyers at a federal court hearing in Brooklyn, two weeks after Guzmán’s surprise extradition from Mexico.



Guzmán’s wife, Emma Coronel, flew to New York to attend the hearing, which his lawyers said was the first time she had seen him since his extradition.

The alleged cartel boss smiled at his common-law wife as he was led into the Brooklyn courtroom under heavy guard by deputy US marshals at his second court appearance since being brought to the United States on 19 January.

“This was so far the only way she has been able to see him,” defense attorney Michelle Gelernt said afterward with a silent Coronel at her side.

Guzmán, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges of running a vast drug trafficking operation that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings. He is being held at a high-security federal jail in Manhattan, with US officials mindful of how he twice escaped from prison in Mexico, the second time via a mile-long tunnel dug to the shower in his cell.

Defense lawyers complained to US district judge Brian Cogan on Friday that the restrictions make it difficult for him to make decisions with them about how to fight the charges. They claimed his jailers are so zealous that they denied him water during a recent meeting with the defense team.

“I don’t think there’s any thought that if I have the guards give him a glass of water during a three-hour meeting that somehow that’s going to effectuate his escape,” Gelernt told reporters outside the court.

But Cogan, after alluding to having secret correspondence with the government about the risks of guarding Guzmán, told the defense he wouldn’t weigh in on the jail conditions.

“Based on what I know about this case, there are grounds for extra security measures,” the judge said, with Guzmán listening through a Spanish interpreter.

Guzmán is due back in court on 5 May.