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"This was perhaps the most notorious criminal prosecution of the
decade, and the charges of which petitioner was convicted could
well have resulted in the death penalty but for the terms of his
extradition," Judge Brian Cogan, from the Eastern District of
New York, said in the ruling denying the petition.
The ruling rejects arguments that Guzman's defense did not
sufficiently explore a plea bargain and cites sealed evidence
suggesting Guzman still controls up to billions of dollars in
assets, even if they are not in his own name.
Cogan, who also presided over Guzman's 2019 trial and
conviction, rejected the request for legal counsel, saying
Guzman already had help from Mariel Colon Miro, a lawyer who has
in recent years represented Guzman and his wife.
Colon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judge also questioned where Guzman had obtained the funds to
pay his lawyers and why his wife - released from prison in
September - has not had access to his assets.
Guzman, 66, is serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison
known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies," where prisoners are kept
in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day.
After twice escaping from maximum-security prisons in Mexico,
including in a mile-long tunnel from his cell, Guzman was in
2017 deported to the United States and convicted on drug
trafficking charges in 2019.
Guzman's Sinaloa cartel remains one of the country's two most
powerful criminal organizations, alongside its main rival, the
Jalisco New Generation cartel.
A powerful faction within the Sinaloa cartel is now led by
Guzman's four sons, one of whom has also been extradited to the
United States.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City; Editing by Drazen
Jorgic and Matthew Lewis)
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