‘El Chapo’ pleads not guilty in NYC court

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman appeared in a New York City courtroom today, facing charges of running a drug trafficking cartel that laundered billions of dollars and oversaw murders and kidnappings. Guzman, now in his late 50s, entered a not-guilty plea through a federal public defender. Attendees said he looked dazed and answered the judge’s questions through an interpreter. Prosecutors are seeking life in prison and a $14 billion forfeiture order. They agreed not to seek the death penalty as a condition of Guzman’s extradition from Mexico. “He’s a man known for a life of crime, violence, death and destruction, and now he’ll have to answer for that,” said Robert Capers, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. Guzman, who has escaped twice from maximum-security Mexican prisons, will be held without bail at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, a facility that has handled terror suspects and mobsters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.