“Needless to say, the government has been playing Javert to Mr.

It paints Guzman by turns as a gifted executive and a ruthless killer who built the Sinaloa cartel into “the largest drug trafficking organization in the world” using novel trade routes and traditional modes of corruption to conduct billions of dollars in cash transactions and almost incomprehensible volumes of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and synthetic opioids across U.S. The indictment alone spans almost three decades. “The amount of material is beyond overwhelming.” “There’s no comparison - this is bigger than anything I’ve experienced personally, or ever even heard of,” said Jeffrey Lichtman, the newest of Guzman’s defense attorneys. The federal case against him is so massive, jurors might not deliver a verdict until Valentine’s Day. Guzman’s trial promises to be equally superlative. Norteño music superstar Gerardo Ortiz dubbed him “the prime minister.” Chart-topping narcocorridos celebrate his earlier escapes from prison, his lavish local patronage and his defiance of a state widely seen as corrupt. Guzman was extradited to the United States last year on charges he spent decades commanding the Sinaloa cartel’s drug wars, consolidating the market abroad while expanding his empire at home.

The defendant alone makes this case historic. “The purpose is to show the might of the United States justice system.” trying Pablo Escobar,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and an expert on the international drug trade and organized crime. But with jury selection set to start in New York’s Eastern District Court on Monday, there’s one point on which everyone seems to agree: There has never been a trial like this one before. Lawyers have battled for close to a year over when, where and how to try drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

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