AS THE WORLD’S MOST FEARED DRUG LORD BEGINS
NOTORIOUS Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was the world’s most feared drugs cartel kingpin.
He infamously escaped twice from Mexican prisons, but there was no escape route last week after he was found guilty of drug trafficking.
He was convicted of running the world’s largest drug smuggling operation during a decades-long criminal career that included the murder of rivals, money laundering and weapons offences.
Among shocking evidence given at his trial were allegations that:
El Chapo ordered his henchmen to drug girls as young as 13 so he could rape them at one of his hideouts in the early 2000s
He paid former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto a $100million bribe to call off a nationwide manhunt for him
He beat, shot dead and then SEIZED: El Chapo and his huge supply of drugs burned the bodies of two of his associates after he learned they were working for a rival cartel
He shot a man and threw him into a grave while he was still breathing, burying him alive
To the disappointment of many, US prosecutors had assured Mexican officials that they would not seek the death penalty when they sought his extradition.
The boss of the murderous Sinaloa cartel is said to have smuggled enough cocaine across the border for one line for every person in America.
With an estimated $1billion (£775million) fortune, it’s thought he trafficked more than 150 tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the US.
While the 11-week trial was related only to drugs and firearms offences, 5ft 5in El Chapo – which means “Shorty” – is said to have been behind the kidnapping, torture and killing of hundreds of rivals.
The cartel chief rose from poverty in rural Mexico through the ranks of the country’s underworld, cultivating an image of a Robin Hood-like figure who repeatedly fought the law.
He was jailed for 20 years in Mexico on trafficking and bribery charges – but cut his sentence short in 2001 by escaping in a laundry cart.
The following years were spent moving from one mountain hideout to another, backed up by his private army.
He was eventually recaptured and thrown in a maximum security prison in 2014, but then pulled off his best-known escape a year later.
After digging below the shower cubicle in his cell, El Chapo escaped through a mile-long tunnel just wide enough for the drug lord to ride away on a makeshift motorcycle which ran on rails.
The escape caught the attention of the world, with prison CCTV released by Mexican officials showing the moment El Chapo disappeared into his shower.
But he blew his cover through a series of slip-ups, including an attempt to make a film about his life and an odd meeting with Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn.
With a $5million reward out for information leading to his capture, the drug lord was arrested in January 2016 following a shootout in Sinaloa.
He had been holed up in a seaside apartment and was found curled up in bed with wife Emma, an AK-47 and his two-year-old twin daughters.
The trial was held amid a huge security operation with heavily armed marshals and police officers with bombsniffing dogs stood guard outside the building.
Court artists were warned to not sketch the faces of witnesses.
Even selecting a jury was a problem when the defendant happened to be one of the most feared men on the planet.