Notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman convicted

NEW YORK — Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was convicted on Tuesday of running an industrial-scale smuggling operation after a trial packed with Hollywood-style tales of grisly killings, political payoffs, cocaine hidden in jalapeno cans, jewel-encrusted guns and a naked escape with his mistress through a tunnel.

The 61-year-old former boss of the notorious Sinaloa cartel — famed for his brazen escapes from Mexican prisons — faces life in prison for smuggling tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States.

He was also found guilty on money laundering and weapons possession charges during a three-month trial in which witnesses described the mob boss beating, shooting and even burying alive those who got in his way.

“The verdict was a tremendous victory for the rule of law, for Mexico, the United States and other countries that have been victims of the Sinaloa cartel,” said Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Chapo Guzman was the world’s greatest drug lord of all time,” Vigil added.

The trial unfolded like a real-life telenovela, with Guzman’s ex-henchmen and a former mistress taking the stand under the gaze of the stocky gangster, whose nickname is Spanish slang for “shorty”.

His young wife, onetime beauty queen Emma Coronel, showed up almost every day in court to be with her husband.

After sentencing on June 25, Guzman is likely to be transferred to a so-called “supermax” prison in Colorado, sometimes called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” and considered one of the most secure in the US.

Guzman’s lawyer Bill Purpura said his client had expected the verdict but was a “guy who never gives up” and had vowed to appeal.

In his closing arguments late last month, another of Guzman’s lawyers, Jeffrey Lichtman, asked the jury not to convict on the basis of the “garbage” testimony of government witnesses.