Joaquin El Chapo Guzman slams ‘cruel’ punishment at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York

Lawyers for convicted Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman have denounced his prison conditions and made several requests, including more water and fresh air and earplugs to allow him to sleep.

The former Sinaloa cartel chief was found guilty on February 12 of smuggling tonnes of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in June and faces the prospect of life in prison.

The 62-year-old Guzman is currently being held in solitary confinement in a high-security prison in lower Manhattan in conditions which his lawyers claimed violate the constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”