Since Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera was extradited to the United States more than half a year ago, many have wondered why a man whom U.S. prosecutors call "the most notorious drug trafficker in the world" had opted for a team of public defenders.
It turns out he’s had a plan to hire his own lawyers all along. Last week, Jeffrey Lichtman, a New York-based criminal defense attorney who has represented clients like the son of convicted mob kingpin John Gotti, announced that Guzman had retained his services. Guzman has also signed on Eduardo Balarezo, who has represented other drug traffickers, including Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a one-time ally of Guzman in Sinaloa, their home state in Mexico. Two other attorneys, one of whom helped Lichtman on the Gotti case, have been brought on as well. “He’s agreed to hire us; there’s a team in place,” Lichtman told Newsweek by phone. “I’ve been retained but have not put in a notice of appearance.” The attorneys still have to formally seek the court’s permission to represent Guzman, which Lichtman says will likely occur on August 14.
Guzman is currently detained in a high-security prison in Manhattan that, in the past, has housed terrorists, white collar criminals, mobsters and weapons traffickers. Officially represented by a team of public defenders, he has spent hundreds of hours with Lichtman but they have not reached a payment agreement, the attorney said. The issue of payment could be crucial to Guzman’s case and any subsequent penalties in terms of asset forfeiture: although some estimates of the drug trafficker’s worth range as high as $14 billion, prosecutors say they have not been able to locate a penny. Guzman’s lawyers in Mexico—he reputedly has at least a handful on his payroll, and according to officials cited in the Mexican media some have been used to corrupt officials there—do not necessarily have license to represent him in the U.S. Because Guzman is on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control list, private legal counsel is prohibited from taking even $10 from him unless they have a license.