The eleven-week trial has finally come to an end, and Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years and a $12.6 billion forfeiture in a federal court in Brooklynn. “El Chapo” was convicted in February this year and, since then, America’s most wanted drug lord tried to make the judges change their mind on the sentence. The final resolution from the jury, however, was for him to spend the rest of his life in jail, which will be Colorado’s Supermax prison.
During the sentence, Guzmán spoke for 13 minutes and read a letter in which he thanked his mother, wife, and children for their support. Also, the drug lord complained about the way he had been treated by the authorities in the place where he is secluded.
The sentence took place under tight security measures
It was known that some members of the jury might have been influenced by media, so Guzmán’s defense asked for a retrial. However, in early July, Judge Brian Cogan rejected that possibility.
US authorities deployed an impressive security operation inside and outside the Brooklyn court, including police dogs and bomb squads.
The charges against “El Chapo”
When convicted in February 10, “El Chapo” Guzmán was charged with participation in a criminal enterprise; international conspiracy to manufacture, traffic, and distribution of cocaine, heroine, methamphetamine, and marijuana; use of firearms, and money laundering of the profits the cartel made from drug trafficking.
Two witnesses were sentenced too
Two of the witnesses who declared against the Mexican drug lord were sentenced in May and July. One was Vicente Zambada Niebla, son of one of Guzmán Loera’s partners and heir of the Sinaloa Cartel. Zambada was sentenced in Chicago to fourteen years in prison. The other one, Edgar Galván, got a sentence of nine years in jail after being declared guilty of firearm trafficking to one of the most bloodthirsty hitmen in the cartel that was lead by Joaquín Guzmán.
