It’s been a little over a month since Mexican authorities captured El Chapo and threw him back in inside Altiplano prison in central Mexico–the same one he escaped through a tunnel that was situated in a blind spot in the prison’s surveillance system. Since then, the prison has installed FOUR HUNDRED new cameras, and authorities hope to add another 600 by April, according to CNN.
In an interview with Mexico’s Radio Formula on Tuesday, El Chapo’s lawyer Juan Pablo Badillo says that Chapo is suffering through a consistent amount of ‘physical and mental torture.’ The tactic is simple–the prison guards are allegedly fucking with his sleep.
“He told me, literally, ‘Every two hours, at night, they wake me up to take roll. … They are turning me into a zombie. They do not let me sleep. All I want is just for them to let me sleep.”
“It is brutal torture,’ he told me,” Badillo said. “This is what was done by Stalin in the ’40s and ’50s in Russia.”
Initially, you may think sleep deprivation pales in comparison to other forms of torture like water boarding and electrocuting, keep in mind it is an assault on the mind and body. Badillo was correct when he said Stalin used the tactic–the goal being to send the prisoner into semi-dimentia and terrifying hallucinations.
If Chapo has any hope of escaping again, he’ll have to be extra clever this time, as the prison has installed motion sensors that monitor his every move, brought in dogs who have been trained to detect his scent guard his sell, and reinforced prison floors with steel rods. Good luck, pal.
Don’t sell drugs, kids.
[h/t CNN]