NEW YORK: 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 $12.6 billion of the proceeds of his crimes.
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.
El Chapo's trial provided a rare and terrifying look into the workings of one of the world's largest cartels. Over the space of nearly three months, a New York jury heard 56 government witnesses deliver dramatic evidence against Guzman.
According to the witnesses, the Sinaloa cartel, of which Guzman was a co-leader, flooded the US with cocaine with the blessing of countless police, military officers, and Mexican officials — going all the way up to the president — who turned their heads in exchange for bribes worth millions.
On February 12, a jury found Guzman guilty of crimes spanning a quarter-century.
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