El Chapo trial: Joaquín Guzman joked about arming infant daughter with AK47 in texts to wife, court hears

Prosecutors in federal court in Brooklyn played recordings of Guzman chatting with others about needing to buy ammunition for guns and bribing police officers.  

In one 2011 call, Guzman could be heard scolding his chief enforcer for bragging about roughing up crooked cops who got in the way. He said in the future to "just reprimand them, don't beat them." 

With that, we are ending our reporting for today, but please join us again tomorrow.

Wednesday's court testimony in the El Chapo trial has centred on texts sent between the Guzman and his wife Emma Coronel.

The messages from early 2012 were read by FBI special agent Steven Marston, on his second day testifying in Brooklyn federal court.

Mr Marston explained U.S. authorities were able to obtain the messages by searching records collected by a spy software Guzman himself had ordered installed on phones

The texts appeared to show Guzman and Ms Coronel discussing the hazards of his life. In one message, Coronel said she was being watched by law enforcement, Guzman advised her to "live a normal life." In another, Ms Coronel assured her husband she had a gun.

After a raid on a house in the Mexican beach resort of Los Cabos that captured several of his associates, Guzman told Ms Coronel he escaped through a window with a few scratches, according to the texts.

In a number of messages, the court was told that Guzman and Ms Coronel were discussing their twin daughters, Emmely "Mali" and Maria Joaquina "Kiki" Coronel, then about one and a half years old.

In one message, Guzman said: "Our Kiki is fearless... I'm going to give her an AK-47 so she can hang with me."

Ms Coronel is said to have sat expressionless in the courtroom as the text messages were read out.

The texts also included some of those sent between Guzman and  another woman, Agustina Cabanillas - his apparent mistress.

Mr Marston read romantic texts purportedly between Ms Cabanillas and Guzman in which she called him "love."

The texts show to the court appeared to show Ms Cabanillas acted as a go-between in the drug business, helping to set up deals between Guzman and various other people, including one who used the name "War Princess" and another who went by a series of emoticons.

Guzman was so preoccupied with spying on his associates he had software installed on their phones to monitor their texts and conversations, a key prosecution witness testified this afternoon. It was an opening the FBI would later exploit.

Christian Rodriguez, a technician who said he worked for Guzman from 2008 to 2012 and set up a secure communication system for the cartel, took the stand in federal court in Brooklyn to testify.