DENVER — A man described in court documents as being in “middle management” of a drug cartel this week sued the U.S. Justice Department, claiming his imprisonment in Colorado’s Supermax prison is a sham, a “torturous” attempt to make him talk about drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit also alleges the U.S. falsely claimed Marco Paredes-Machado was a member of the ISIS terrorist group in order to justify moving him to the maximum-security prison in Florence.
“The United States Constitution prohibits the use of torture to coerce an individual to talk. Yet this is exactly what the government did to Marco Paredes-Machado,” attorneys wrote in the 45-page complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver.
