NEW YORK _ A federal judge in Brooklyn on Monday delayed the start of the trial of accused Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as "El Chapo," for two months.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan postponed the trial from Sept. 5 to Nov. 5 at the request of Guzman's defense lawyer, who said he just received a mountain of new evidence from prosecutors.
Cogan had planned to bring hundreds of jurors to court in mid-August to fill out questionnaires. He hasn't yet set a new schedule to correspond to the delayed trial date.
The trial is expected to last 12 weeks.
Guzman, 60, was extradited to the United States last year to face charges that he used intimidation and violence as head of the feared Sinaloa cartel to run a massive drug trafficking operation that shipped 20 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
He twice escaped from prisons in Mexico, and has been held in high-security conditions at the federal lockup in Manhattan since his arrival in New York.
Eduardo Balarezo, Guzman's lawyer, has asked for the trial to be moved from Brooklyn as a result of prejudicial publicity stemming from security closures of the Brooklyn Bridge every day he is transported to court.
He has asked Cogan to move the trial to Manhattan, or to Philadelphia. The judge has not yet ruled on that request. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 14.
