El Chapo’s Brutal Prison Conditions Reveal His ‘Soldiers’ Were Bluffing

El Chapo, the most notorious drug kingpin of the modern era, was captured this January in his native Mexico and sent to a prison in Manhattan that is said to be even more secure than Guantanamo Bay. CNN reports El Chapo (actual name Javier Guzman) and his attorneys are arguing the conditions in the prison are cruel and unusual, a fact that proves the so-called “soldiers of El Chapo,” who sent out a menacing video on El Chapo’s behalf just several days ago, were not being entirely on the level.

“The current restrictions are excessive,” Michelle Gelernt, one of El Chapo’s publicly-appointed attorneys, told reporters.

According to a previous article from the Inquisitr, guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where El Chapo is being kept under 23-hour lockdown, will not even provide the reputed Sinaloa Drug Cartel leader with a glass of water when he is thirsty and begging for a drink.

“I don’t think there’s any thought that if I have the guards give him a glass of water during a three-hour meeting that somehow that’s going to effectuate his escape,” Gelernt continued. She went on to say that the guards’ refusal to give El Chapo water is only one example of the extremely harsh treatment he has been receiving.

To be fair, El Chapo has already escaped from maximum security prisons twice in the past and so might require even more stringent security measures than most prisoners at the facility. In 2001, he escaped by hiding in a load of laundry, and he escaped again in 2015 by digging a secret tunnel underground. Gelernt may have a point, though, that depriving the man of water is doing absolutely nothing to prevent his escape.

Whether El Chapo’s treatment at the Metropolitan Correctional Center is ethical or not, though, the fact that he’s still there and is complaining about it does prove one thing. El Chapo’s followers, who said just a few days ago they would be able to break him out immediately, cannot reach him there.

In an incident covered by the Inquisitr nearly a week ago, several inmates being kept at the federal lockdown in Taft, California, released a menacing video in support of El Chapo. In the video, the prisoners, who were all male and spoke in Spanish, claimed that they would easily be able to pay for luxurious accommodations for their captain at whatever federal facility in which he might be incarcerated.

“Everything is ready for you. What you say is the law,” said the lead prisoner in the video, noting that it is not difficult to smuggle in drugs, cell phones, or even women when guards are being paid to look the other way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Mmy-Y2s0I

Not only that, the head prisoner continues, but El Chapo’s vast underground network will make sure it is easy for him to escape yet again should he desire to.

This might all sound a bit too easy to believe — El Chapo is being kept at one of the most secure facilities in the world, after all. He is also one of the most well-connected men on the planet, and as the prisoners point out in the video, having thousands of people, who the speaker refers to as “soldiers,” ready to sacrifice quite a bit in order to win your freedom makes it hard to be contained.

Finally, notes the article, the men in the video emphasized that they were not bluffing; this was the real deal.

Now that the dust has cleared, though, and El Chapo is still unhappily behind bars, we can be sure that El Chapo’s men were indeed just blowing smoke. Whether they were trying to be intimidating or they were just mistaken, they cannot get to their leader, and that could mean El Chapo is really done for this time.

Do you think this is it for El Chapo? Or will his followers soon get around to making good on their promise and helping their leader escape? Make yourself heard in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Marco Ugarte/AP Images]