What to Know
- It was an emotional day in court for the alleged drug kingpin "El Chapo” Thursday, as his two daughters went to see him during his trial
- The alleged drug trafficker greeted them warmly, kissed them and patted them from the area where he sits with his lawyers
- This is the sixth week of his trial, in which more than a dozen people have already testified
It turned out to be an emotional day in court for alleged drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, as his two young daughters went to see him for the first time during his trial in federal court in Brooklyn Thursday.
The alleged drug trafficker greeted them warmly, kissed them and patted them from the area where he sits with his lawyers. He also played at a distance with them, opening and closing his hands. During the morning, while members of the Colombian national police testified about drug seizures, Guzman watched them constantly.
Dressed in jeans and white jackets, the 7-year-old twins were accompanied by their mother, Emma Coronel, who almost every day has gone alone to her husband’s trial.
The girls sometimes went to hearings held in court before the trial, but had never entered the courtroom since it began.
Guzman, one of the most well-known alleged drug traffickers in recent times, has pleaded not guilty to allegedly accumulating a multimillion-dollar fortune through trafficking cocaine and other drugs from Mexico into the United States. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
This is the sixth week of his trial, in which more than a dozen people have already testified.
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Guzman is being held under maximum security. Since he was extradited to the United States in early 2017 he has not been allowed to speak or meet with Coronel.
So far, in the course of the trial, two of Guzman’s sons — Luis Alfredo "Alfredillo" Guzman and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman — have been named as also being involved in alleged drug trafficking.
