For the past few months, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has used every avenue possible to seek better conditions while serving his life sentence at the ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado.
From urging U.S. authorities to reconsider extraditing him to Mexico, where he claimed in a series of alleged handwritten letters that his image is not viewed negatively, to holding the Mexican government responsible for all the crimes committed by the Sinaloa Cartel and arguing there were irregularities in his case, the co-founder of one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations is now taking things a step further.
El Chapo's attorney, Gerardo Rincón Flores, said in an interview that his client plans to provide U.S. authorities with information related to 32 alleged officials linked to drug trafficking during the administrations of Enrique Peña Nieto and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The new letter El Chapo plans to send to the U.S. government will expand on previous claims about an alleged list of public officials purportedly connected to organized crime groups.
"A list of 10 people fell short. What I'm going to send will expand it to 32," Rincón Flores said during the interview, adding that many of the people on the list still hold public office.
"Between Peña Nieto and Andrés Manuel, whether they deny it or not, there were people involved. I don't know if you've noticed that many people who were with one administration are now with the other," Rincón Flores said, as reported by Infobae México.
Regarding the alleged letters attributed to El Chapo several months ago, Rincón Flores insisted the documents are fake, saying his client does not know how to write in English and does not refer to himself as "El Chapo."
In a letter written in English, Guzmán allegedly said prosecutors blamed him for crimes he insists he did not commit while shifting responsibility to Mexican officials.
"The Mexican government was responsible for all the violent crimes," Guzmán wrote. "They blamed me for things I didn't do, all because of who I am."
"I was known in my country not for bad things. The good things I have done in Mexico are wanting family to eat together and have a great life," another excerpt of the letter reads.
🔴Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán envía otra carta escrita en inglés a la Corte Federal del Distrito Este de Nueva York en la que pide que lo extraditen a México.
— Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) May 4, 2026
Está fechada el 23 de abril y fue recibida por la Corte el 1 de mayo.
📃vía @keegan_hamilton pic.twitter.com/m6uzLHWLLQ
Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 after being convicted on drug trafficking charges. His sentence also included an additional 30 years in prison. As mentioned above, he is being held at ADX Florence in Colorado, the Bureau of Prisons' administrative maximum-security facility designed for inmates considered the greatest risk to staff, other prisoners and the public.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has launched investigations into Mexican officials linked to criminal organizations. In April, the U.S. accused former Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya and nine other officials of having links to the Sinaloa Cartel, particularly with the Los Chapitos faction.
The indictment, unveiled by the U.S. government on April 29, accuses Rocha Moya of receiving support from Los Chapitos to win the governorship and, once in office, allowed violence to continue unchecked while protecting cartel leaders and their drug trafficking operations.
Prosecutors say the alleged corruption extended to local law enforcement agencies, including the Sinaloa State Police, the state attorney general's investigative police and the Culiacán municipal police, which they accuse of protecting drug trafficking operations in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
