Mexican Drug Lord El Chapo Complains He Can’t Sleep Properly In Jail

Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán – better known as El Chapo – says he cannot sleep since he was returned to jail earlier this month.

The notorious criminal, who escaped from his cell six months ago through a one-mile long tunnel, and was rearrested on 8 January, has issued a statement where he bemoans his circumstances.

El Chapo’s lawyer, Jose Gonzalez, said that his client cannot sleep in his cell, which is guarded over by a “boisterous guard dog”, and where prison officers come and check on him every hour.

The criminal boss is being held at the Altiplano prison in the municipality of Almoloya de Juzrez in the central State of Mexico.

In the text which he passed to Gonzalez via a third party, El Chapo said: “I haven’t been able to sleep at all.

"They wake me up to take the register every hour during the day and every two hours at night, and there is a dog next to me which barks a lot and stops me sleeping."

His lawyer has also stated in the public declaration that Guzman has not "seen his family since before he was detained."

The president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, the country is attempting to "accelerate” the extradition of El Chapo to the United States, where he considered most powerful drug trafficker in the world.

He has twice escaped prison, the first time in a laundry trolley from another prison in 2001.

El Chapo was the subject of a controversial Rolling Stone feature written by actor Sean Penn, in which the drug lord was interviewed while on the run.

The Academy Award winner has since said that the piece “failed” in its job.

“I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the war on drugs,” he told CBS.

(Credit: CEN)