Joaquin Guzman 'El Chapo’ Update: Brutal Prison Conditions Expected For Extradited Drug Kingpin

Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo, may have escaped twice out of high-security Mexican prisons but he’s in new territory now. The infamous drug kingpin was extradited to the U.S. Thursday and may be held in a Brooklyn federal prison.

Reports revealed that El Chapo is scheduled to appear in a Brooklyn courtroom Friday afternoon with his arraignment set for 2 p.m. He was charged with six separate indictments in the U. S. but the indictment “filed in the Eastern District of New York contains a provision that he must first enter the United States in that district to preserve the Eastern District of New York indictment,” the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

As a result, El Chapo arrived at the Long Island McArthur Airport Thursday night and reports stated he might spend time in Metropolitan Detention Center, known for its “unconscionable” conditions.

A 2016 report compiled by the National Association of Women Judges' Women in Prison Committee that observed how women inmates temporarily transferred to the prison were treated said that conditions in the prison have remained poor since a previous report in 2013:

“The absence of fresh, clean air, the complete absence of sunlight, and the absence of ANY outdoor time and activities are immediate issues which BOP has failed to address in any meaningful fashion,” said the report, compiled by Judge Cheryl J. Gonzales, Judge Robin S. Garson, Judge Betty J. Williams and Judge Brenda P. Murray.

Conditions in the prison violated the ABA Standards on Treatment of Prisoners and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and it was concluded that the Metropolitan Detention Center was an “inappropriate facility to house women or any person long-term,” the report added.

A lawsuit was also filed in 2002 claiming that several South Asian, Muslim and Arab non-citizens arrested in connection with the FBI’s 9/11 investigation were held in “brutal detention conditions” in the prison, where there were reports of detainees “purposefully deprived of sleep, denied contact with the outside world, beaten and verbally abused, and denied the ability to practice their religion,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said.

These conditions stray far from what Guzman was accustomed to, with reports of catered food and liquor delivered consistently to his cell at the Puente Grande federal prison in Mexico. "[The Mexican] prison became a resort for El Chapo Guzman," investigative journalist Anabel Hernandez said.