A United States judge on Wednesday sentenced Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzman alias El Chapo to life in prison plus 30 years, BBC reported. A New York court found Guzmán, 62, guilty of 10 charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
The additional 30 years have been given for illegal use of firearms. The judge also ordered Guzman to pay a fine of $12.6 billion (Rs 86,749 crore).
A jury had in February found Guzman guilty of smuggling cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States, as well as using firearms and conspiracy to launder narcotics proceeds. Mexico had extradited Guzmán to the United States in January 2017. His trial began in November 2018.
At present, Chapo is being held in solitary confinement in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, The Guardian reported. US District Judge Brian Cogan last month rejected Chapo’s request for more time to exercise on the jail’s roof, as prosecutors said this might lead to his escape.
Guzman said before Wednesday’s verdict that his solitary confinement had amounted to “psychological, emotional, mental torture 24 hours a day”. He also alleged that he had been given an unfair trial. “It’s been torture, the most inhumane situation I have lived in my entire life,” he said, according to CNN. “There was no justice here.”
“The long road that led ‘El Chapo’ Guzman from the mountains of Sinaloa to the courthouse was paved with death, drugs and destruction, but it ended today with justice,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A Benczkowski said. Defence lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said it was very likely that Guzman would be imprisoned in a high-security prison in Colorado.
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