Drug lord, escape artist convicted
NEW YORK: The world’s most infamous cartel boss Joaquin ‘‘El Chapo’’ Guzman, who rose from poverty in rural Mexico to amass billions of dollars, was found guilty in a United States court yesterday of smuggling tons of drugs to the US over a violent, colourful, decadeslong career.
Jurors in federal court in Brooklyn convicted Guzman (61) on all 10 counts brought by US prosecutors.
Richard Donoghue, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said he expected Guzman to receive life without parole when sentenced in June.
‘‘It is a sentence from which there is no escape and no return,’’ Donoghue told reporters.
Guzman, one of the major figures in Mexican drug wars that have roiled the country since 2006, became almost legendary for escaping from Mexican highsecurity jails twice and avoiding massive manhunts. He cultivated a Robin Hood image among the poor in his home state of Sinaloa.
Guzman showed no emotion while the verdict was read. Once the jury left the room, he and his wife Emma Coronel, put their hands to their hearts and gave each other the thumbsup sign. His wife shed tears.
Guzman, whose nickname means ‘‘Shorty’’, was extradited to the US for trial in 2017 after he was arrested in Mexico the year before.
Though other highranking cartel figures had been extradited previously, Guzman was the first to go to trial instead of pleading guilty.
The 11week trial, with testimony from more than 50 witnesses, offered an unprecedented look at the inner workings of the Sinaloa Cartel, named for the state in northwestern Mexico where Guzman was born in a poor mountain village.
The US Government said Guzman trafficked tons of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into the US over more than two decades, consolidating his power in Mexico through murders and wars with rival cartels.
Guzman’s smuggling exploits, the violence he used and the size of his business made him the world’s most notorious drug baron since Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, who was shot dead by police in 1993.
Guzman’s lawyers say he was set up as a ‘‘fall guy’’ by Ismael Zambada, a powerful drug lord from Sinaloa who remains at large. — Reuters