Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman returned to a Brooklyn courtroom as his lawyer fights to relieve restrictive jail conditions. 

Guzman arrived at the Brooklyn courthouse just before 7 a.m. Friday surrounded by a motorcade of several law enforcement vehicles. 

Officials shut down the Brooklyn Bridge as Guzman was moved from Manhattan.

During his last hearing, Guzman's lawyers asked for him to be released from the ultra-high security wing that houses terrorists. 

On Thursday, a judge ruled Guzman would stay in solitary confinement and have restrictions in communications with his wife to only written letters that are screened.

Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that he oversaw a multibillion-dollar drug trafficking operation that was responsible for murders and kidnappings

The 59-year-old defendant famous for twice escaping from prison in Mexico lost his bid Thursday to be allowed in the general inmate population and receive visitors.