An attorney for Joaquin Guzmán Loera, the alleged Mexican drug kingpin known as “El Chapo,” went too far in his opening statements by suggesting that the case against his client is driven in part by crooked government officials in the United States and Latin America, a judge said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, during the first half of his opening statements to the jury in the drug conspiracy trial against Guzmán, defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said the government is selectively prosecuting his client, who is more of a household name than other suspected leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, over Ismael Zambada García, who is now the cartel’s suspected leader and remains at large.