Defense attorneys for alleged drug kingpin and prison escape artist Joaquin Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo, and prosecutors presented opening arguments on Tuesday in the drug conspiracy trial against Guzmán in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn that is under beefed-up security.

The team of prosecutors from U.S. attorneys offices in New York and Florida portrayed Guzmán as the ruthless and hands-on leader of a vast drug enterprise in Mexico that got its start as a go-between for drug producers in Central and South America and distributors in major cities in the United States that scaled up so quickly over the past few decades that at one point Guzmán himself had some difficulty keeping track of shipments.