Who is Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman and when does the Mexican drug lord go on trial?
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is the head of one of Mexico's most violent drugs gangs, the Sinaloa Cartel, and for decades oversaw the trafficking of billions of dollars in narcotics into America and around the world.
He made international headlines for escaping from maximum security prisons twice in Mexico, as well as evading police on numerous other occasions.
He was recaptured in January 2016 in a shootout with Mexican marines and US law enforcement, and was extradited to the US in January 2017.
He is currently behind bars in New York while he awaits trial.
What is the Sinaloa Cartel?
The Sinaloa is one of the world's largest drug trafficking organisations.
Founded in the mid 1980s in the poor, mountainous region of Sinaloa, in western Mexico, it initially specialised in smuggling marijuana and heroin, made from the poppies that grow in the state.
The 1985 murder of a US drugs enforcement agency (DEA) officer, Enrique Camarena, forced the Mexican authorities to act, with the cartel splintering. Senior figures in the group set up rival organisations in other states; Guzman, who was brought in as a young man by a family friend, remained in Sinaloa.
Under Guzman's leadership, with the assistance of Ismael Zambada Garcia, "El Mayo," and Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, alias "El Azul", the power of the Sinaloa cartel grew.
Its tentacles stretch from New York City to Buenos Aires, and across the Atlantic into Europe and Africa. By some estimates the Sinaloa cartel is present in 50 countries.
El Azul may have died of a heart attack in June 2014 - no one is quite sure. El Mayo remains a powerful force, as do his children.
How long has he been behind bars?
Guzman is no stranger to prison.
He was first captured in 1993, in Guatemala, and was detained initially at the Altiplano prison, at Almoloya de Juarez in Mexico State.
He was transferred in 1995 to the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco, where he remained until escaping hidden under a laundry cart in 2001.
After 13 years on the run, he was recaptured in February 2014 and held at Altiplano again. But in July 2015 he escaped for a second time, tunneling out of the prison.
He was recaptured in January 2016, and held at Altiplano and then in Ciudad Juarez, before being extradited to the US on the day of Barack Obama's presidency, in January 2017.
When will he go on trial?
Guzman will go on trial in in the United States in April 2018, with the case expected to be one of the most significant drug trafficking trials in history.
The trial is expected to take two to three months and evidence will include 1,500 recordings and 10,000 documents.
In New York, he is named in a sweeping 17-count indictment alleging that from 1989 to 2014, Guzman led a continuing criminal enterprise responsible for importing and distributing massive amounts of narcotics and conspiring to murder rivals who posed a threat.
Guzman is also charged with firearm violations related to drug trafficking and money laundering connected to the smuggling from the United States to Mexico of more than $14 billion in cash from narcotics sales.
Guzman and other cartel leaders were indicted in 2009 in US District Court in Brooklyn on charges of conspiring to import more than 264,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States between 1990 and 2005. The alleged traffickers are accused of sharing drug transportation routes and obtaining their drugs from Colombian drug organizations.
The charges span two decades, cross borders and rely on a parade of cooperating witnesses who will have to be investigated by the defence.
How much is he worth?
The Mexican government estimates that the drug lord controls a $14 billion empire, but so far they haven't been able to seize any of his money or assets.
He regularly appeared on lists of the most powerful people in the world, and Forbes once estimated his net worth at $1 billion (£811 million).
Is there any chance of him escaping again?
Guzman is in solitary confinement in a 20-by-12-foot cell for 23 hours a day, on the tenth floor of the Metropolitan Correctional Center - known as the Special Housing Unit, or the SHU.
The jail is sandwiched between federal prosecutors' offices and two federal courthouses and is protected by steel barricades that can stop a seven-and-a-half-ton truck. Cameras capable of reading a newspaper a block away are trained on the area.
Guzman is allowed to send pre-screened letters to his wife Emma Coronel, a former beauty queen and a US citizen, but she is not allowed to visit him. She has been present at all his court appearances in New York.
The US government has said severe restrictions are necessary for Guzman in part because he used coded messages, bribes and other means to continue operating his drug empire from behind bars and arrange escapes.
Who will represent him?
Guzman “auditioned” at least 16 different lawyers in the first three months he was in a New York prison.
Many firms would be unwilling to take the case, given that whoever accepts the case will face a number of serious challenges - including the question of getting paid. Guzman will have to show that any funds used for legal fees, whether from him or a benefactor, do not come from a criminal enterprise.
On August 8 it was reported that he had settled on his legal team, headed by Jeffrey Lichtman, who successfully defended New York mafia suspect John Gotti Jr, son of the Gambino clan chief.
He will also be represented by Marc Fernich, who assisted Mr Lichtman during the trial.
Two other lawyers, Eduardo Balarezo and William Purpura, who both previously represented Mexican drug lord Alfredo Beltran Leyva, have also joined the team.
Who are his family?
Guzman's wife, Ms Coronel, is a 27-year-old former beauty queen and mother of his twin daughters.
He has many other children, however - some of whom have attended court in New York.
His sons Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, 33, and Jesus Alfredo Guzman, are believed to be in day-to-day control of the cartel, although they are said to have clashed with El Mayo over their flashy lifestyles.
Known, along with another of Guzman's sons, Ovidio, as "narco juniors", their social media accounts have been flooded of pictures of the young men surrounded by scantily-clad women, or posing with tigers, or flaunting guns, cars and jewels.
His 86-year-old mother, Consuelo, still lives in Sinaloa - although her home was raided in June 2016, and she is now in hiding.
