Court papers: Witness claims El Chapo had sex with minors

A federal cooperating witness alleged that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera had sex with underage girls, according to court filings unsealed late Friday on the eve of jury deliberations in his trial for cocaine smuggling in Brooklyn federal court.

According to a letter prosecutors wrote to U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, one witness said an associate known as "Commadre Maria" sent pictures of girls as young as 13 to Guzman and for $5,000 he "could have the girl of his choice brought to one of the defendant’s ranches for sexual intercourse."

The witness, identified as "CW-1," who lived with Guzman in 2007-2008, said he availed himself of the service several times with girls as young as 15, and he "witnessed the defendant do the same on multiple occasions, with girls as young as 13 years old."

Prosecutors said in the letter to Cogan that other witnesses had corroborated the behavior, and that Guzman allegedly put a powdery substance in the girls' drinks to drug them.

"CW-1 recalls that the defendant called the youngest of the girls his 'vitamins' because he believed that sexual activity with young girls gave him 'life,' " the government said.

The allegations were contained in a letter sent to Cogan in October, one of several filings unsealed this weekend after persistent objections to secret filings from the media.

The government said it wasn't going to bring out the sex claims at trial because they were irrelevant to drug trafficking allegations, and asked the judge to keep defense lawyers from using them in cross examination. The allegations never came out at trial.

In a statement, Guzman lawyer Eduardo Balarezo said, "As you are aware, the government recently publicly filed documents containing extremely salacious information. Joaquin denies the allegations which lack any corroboration and were deemed too prejudicial and unreliable to be admitted at trial."

Balarezo added, "It is unfortunate that the material was publicly released just prior to the jury beginning deliberations."

The government's letter did not identify the witness, but his description matched Alex Cifuentes, a Colombian whose family supplied cocaine to Guzman, and who worked with Guzman and stayed at his compound in Mexico.

The letter was one of six involving pretrial legal issues relating to cooperating witnesses that were sealed until this weekend. Another contained a passage indicating that Cogan kept out of trial evidence that Guzman raped one government witness. 

In a letter last Oct. 27, prosecutors asked the judge to ensure that the rape would not be used on cross examination of the victim to try to show bias. The government did not name the witness who was raped, and the incident did not come out at trial. 

Guzman, 61, has been on trial since November on charges that as a leader of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel he was responsible for smuggling an estimated $14 billion in cocaine into the United States, and used murder, kidnappings and corruption to control his drug empire. Cifuentes was one of 14 ex-associates of Guzman who testified for the government.

Lawyers completed their closing arguments in the case on Thursday. Jury deliberations are scheduled to begin on Monday after instructions.