Mexican drug lord, El Chapo has been Sentenced To Life In Prison. El Chapo’s trial has been highly-publicized with many media outlets camping outside the court to get exclusive scoops on his legal developments. He escaped a Mexican jail through a tunnel in 2016, but was later arrested. He was extradited to the US in 2017.
He is a former head of the Sinaloa cartel, which officials say was the biggest supplier of drugs to the US.
According to TMZ, Guzman has officially been sentenced to spend his life behind bars, learning his fate today. On top of his life sentence, Chapo also got an additional thirty years added to his sentence after being convicted on all ten counts he was facing.
Joaquin Guzman, has been one of the most notoriously well-known criminals in the entire world. The kingpin was convicted earlier this year of presiding over a vast criminal operation that funneled immense quantities of narcotics, including heroin and methamphetamine, into the United States. Guzman did not testify during the three-month trial, but broke that silence during Wednesday’s hearing.
The drug kingpin will need to give up over $12 billion of dirty money he collected over the years. He appeared to be surprised by the verdict but gave his wife a thumbs up before being escorted out of court.
“Since the government will send me to a jail where my name will not ever be heard again, I take this opportunity to say: There was no justice here,” he said, according to the New York Daily News.
“I drink unsanitary water, no air or sunlight, and the air pumped in makes my ears and throat hurt. In order to sleep, I put toilet paper in my ears. My wife had not been allowed to visit, and I cant hug my daughters,” he said. “This has been psychological, emotional and mental torture 24 hours a day.”
“My case was stained and you denied me a fair trial when the world was watching. What happened here is the U.S. is not better than any other corrupt country,” Guzman added.