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Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' hires Gotti lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman in US case
Source: Reuters
Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' hires Gotti lawyer in US case
Reuters
Wednesday 9 August 2017 08.24 BST
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the captured leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, has hired a New York lawyer best known for successfully defending the son of the convicted mafia boss John Gotti to represent him in his US criminal case.
The lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said Guzman had hired him along with three others – Marc Fernich, who has also represented Gotti’s son, John Gotti, Jr; William Purpura, who represented a Baltimore drug kingpin, Richard Wilford; and Eduardo Balarezo, who represented Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, the head of another Mexican drug cartel.
Wilford and Beltrán Leyva were convicted and received long prison sentences.
Guzman, 60, is charged with running a transnational cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine smuggling operation, playing a key role in Mexico’s decade-long drug war that has killed more than 100,000 people. He was captured in Mexico in January 2016, six months after escaping from a high-security prison in central Mexico through a tunnel.
-snip-
Reuters
Wednesday 9 August 2017 08.24 BST
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the captured leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, has hired a New York lawyer best known for successfully defending the son of the convicted mafia boss John Gotti to represent him in his US criminal case.
The lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said Guzman had hired him along with three others – Marc Fernich, who has also represented Gotti’s son, John Gotti, Jr; William Purpura, who represented a Baltimore drug kingpin, Richard Wilford; and Eduardo Balarezo, who represented Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, the head of another Mexican drug cartel.
Wilford and Beltrán Leyva were convicted and received long prison sentences.
Guzman, 60, is charged with running a transnational cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine smuggling operation, playing a key role in Mexico’s decade-long drug war that has killed more than 100,000 people. He was captured in Mexico in January 2016, six months after escaping from a high-security prison in central Mexico through a tunnel.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/09/mexican-drug-lord-el-chapo-hires-gotti-lawyer-jeffrey-lichtman-us-case