(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 19, 2017 This handout picture released by the Mexican Interior Ministry on January 19, 2017 shows Joaquin Guzman Loera aka “El Chapo” Guzman (C) escorted in Ciudad Juarez by the Mexican police as he is extradited to the United States. – After a dramatic decades-long run as one of the world’s most notorious druglords, there is little suspense about what will happen in a New York courtroom on Wednesday: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. (Photo by HO / INTERIOR MINISTRY OF MEXICO / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE-MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO/INTERIOR MINISTRY OF MEXICO” NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS-DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS-XGTY / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY Laura BONILLA CAL: “El Chapo expected to get life sentence from US judge”
Pixelation of faces was done by the US Department of Justice
(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 19, 2017 This handout picture released by the Mexican Interior Ministry on January 19, 2017 shows Joaquin Guzman Loera aka “El Chapo” Guzman (C) escorted in Ciudad Juarez by the Mexican police as he is extradited to the United States. – After a dramatic decades-long run as one of the world’s most notorious druglords, there is little suspense about what will happen in a New York courtroom on Wednesday: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. (Photo by HO / INTERIOR MINISTRY OF MEXICO / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE-MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO/INTERIOR MINISTRY OF MEXICO” NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS-DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS-XGTY / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY Laura BONILLA CAL: “El Chapo expected to get life sentence from US judge”
Pixelation of faces was done by the US Department of Justice
A US court sentenced Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to life in prison Wednesday plus a symbolic 30 years, ordering the former mob boss to pay back R176-billion of the proceeds of his crimes.
El Chapo 25-year reign of terror draws to a close
Once the world’s most notorious drug lord, the 62-year-old former co-leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel was convicted in February of crimes spanning a quarter-century, including trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana into the United States.
Guzman was convicted in February of crimes spanning a quarter of a century, including trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana to the United States.
Breakdown of El Chapo’s hefty sentence
The charges, which also include money laundering and weapons-related offences, carry a mandatory life sentence.
Prosecutors asked US federal judge Brian Cogan to tack on a symbolic extra 30 years in prison for the use of firearms in his business, portraying Guzman as “ruthless and bloodthirsty.”
They also want Guzman to turn over R176-billion, based on a conservative estimate of revenues from his cartel’s drug sales in the United States. So far, US authorities have not recovered a dime.
Guzman is considered to be the most powerful drug lord since Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, killed in a police shootout in 1993.
“El Chapo” (“Shorty”) was the co-leader of the still-powerful Sinaloa organization.
During the three-month trial in New York, jurors heard evidence of Guzman’s misdeeds. Witnesses described the cartel boss beating, shooting and even burying alive those who got in his way, including informants and rival gang members.
At least one of Guzman’s victims — a woman who prosecutors say survived a hit ordered by the kingpin — will speak at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.
Chapo’s new home: The Alcatraz of the Rockies
Guzman launched his career working in the cannabis fields of his home state of Sinaloa. Now, he is likely to spend the rest of his days at the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” — the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado.
Current inmates include convicted “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, the British “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and the Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is awaiting execution.
Since his extradition from Mexico in 2017, Guzman has been held in solitary confinement at a high-security prison in Lower Manhattan.
He has repeatedly complained about the conditions of his detention via his attorneys — notably that his windowless cell is constantly lit.
On Wednesday, Guzman — who famously escaped Mexican prisons in 2001 and again in 2015 — could see his wife Emma Coronel and their two daughters for the last time.
“Joaquin’s conviction and incarceration for drug trafficking will change nothing in the so-called war on drugs.”
New York’s special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan acknowledged that taking El Chapo out of the equation did not diminish the Sinaloa cartel’s influence.
“We believe that’s the one that supplies most of the drugs coming into the US,” she told AFP.
