"El Chapo" asks judge to let wife and daughters visit him in supermax prison

Convicted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman wrote to the federal judge who oversaw his case, asking for his wife and young daughters to visit him in the notorious federal United States Penitentiary Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado, according to a handwritten letter obtained by CBS News.

Guzman is serving a life sentence plus 30 years at the supermax prison after being convicted of murder conspiracy and drug charges in 2019. The notorious prison is so isolated and remote that Guzman in January sent Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador an "SOS" to be extradited to Mexico due to the alleged "psychological torment" he said he was suffering in the U.S. prison.

The letter, which was filed on Friday and translated for the court, asked the judge to "authorize a visit from my wife and bring the girls as well." 

Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was sentenced to three years in prison for helping her husband run his multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise. She also helped him plan a dramatic escape from a maximum-security Mexican prison in 2015 using an elaborate one-mile underground tunnel complete with a motorcycle on rails.

Guzman wrote that the prosecutors "were opposed to her visiting me" in New York because they believed "she could pass threatening messages to the witnesses." He maintained that "this was ridiculous since all conversations during the visits are recorded."

During Coronel Aispuro's sentencing, she asked the judge for a punishment that would allow her to watch her then 9-year-old twin daughters grow up. Guzman wrote that daughters are in school in Mexico and would only be able to visit "during the vacation period, 2 times per year [or] 3 times at most."

He said his wife would be the only one to visit him because his mother and sisters do not have travel visas. His wife, Guzman wrote, would be able to visit after September 13, 2023, when "her detention ends ... and she will be able to travel anywhere in the country." 

In June, Coronel Aispuro was moved from federal prison to community confinement, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to CBS News. Coronel Aispuro is scheduled to be released in mid-September, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

In:
• Mexico
• El Chapo
• Cartel

Cara Tabachnick

Cara Tabachnick is a news editor for CBSNews.com. Contact her at [email protected]