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Emma
Coronel
Aispuro,
center,
wife of
Mexican
drug
lord
Joaquin
"El
Chapo"
Guzman,
arrives
for his
sentencing
at
Brooklyn
federal
court,
Wednesday,
July 17,
2019 in
New
York.
The
62-year-old
Guzman
was
convicted
in
February
on
multiple
conspiracy
counts
in an
epic
drug-trafficking
case.
(AP
Photo/Mark
Lennihan)
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Joaquin
'El
Chapo'
Guzman
sentenced
to life
in
prison
By
TOM HAYS
and
CLAUDIA
TORRENS
APNews.com
NEW
YORK -
Mexican
drug
kingpin
and
escape
artist
Joaquin
“El
Chapo”
Guzman
was
sentenced
Wednesday
to life
behind
bars in
a U.S.
prison,
expressing
no
remorse
over his
conviction
for a
massive
drug
conspiracy
that
spread
murder
and
mayhem
for more
than two
decades.
Instead,
a
defiant
Guzman
took a
parting
shot at
a judge
in
federal
court in
Brooklyn
by
accusing
him of
making a
mockery
of the
U.S.
justice
system
in
refusing
to order
a new
trial
based on
unsubstantiated
allegations
of juror
misconduct.
“My
case was
stained
and you
denied
me a
fair
trial
when the
whole
world
was
watching,”
Guzman
said
through
an
interpreter.
Experts
say he
will
likely
wind up
at the
federal
government’s
Supermax
prison
in
Florence,
Colorado,
where
inmates
are held
alone
for 23
hours a
day and
have
little
human
interaction.
“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.
The
62-year-old
drug
lord -
sporting
his
trademark
moustache
after
being
clean-shaven
during
his
trial -
also
used
what
could be
his last
chance
to speak
in
public
by
complaining
about
being
kept in
solitary
confinement
since he
was
brought
to the
U.S. to
stand
trial
after
twice
breaking
out of
Mexican
prisons.
Before
handing
down the
sentence,
U.S.
District
Judge
Brian
Cogan
said
Guzman’s
complaints
were
minor
given
the
“mountain
range of
evidence”
against
him
detailing
conduct
he
described
as
“evil.”
On
Wednesday,
the
judge
heard
from one
of
Guzman’s
alleged
victims,
Andrea
Velez
Fernandez,
who once
worked
for him
until
she made
his
enemy
list.
She
claimed
he put
out a $1
million
bounty
to have
her
killed.
“Fortunately,
I found
out and
escaped
with the
help of
the
FBI,”
she
said.
Guzman
had no
visible
reaction
at
hearing
his
sentence.
As he
stood to
be led
out of
the
courtroom,
he put
his hand
on his
heart
and
waved to
family
members.
Outside
court,
U.S.
Attorney
Richard
Donoghue
told
reporters:
“Never
again
will
Guzman
pour
poison
over our
borders.”
The
term -
life
plus 30
years -
was a
foregone
conclusion.
The
guilty
verdict
on
drug-trafficking
charges
in
February
triggered
a
mandatory
sentence
of life
without
parole .
Cogan
also
ordered
Guzman
to pay
$12.6
billion
in
ill-gotten
proceeds
- money
his
drug-trafficking
organization
made
distributing
cocaine
and
other
drugs
around
the
United
States.
The
evidence
at an
11-week
trial
showed
that
Guzman’s
Sinaloa
cartel
was
responsible
for
smuggling
mountains
of
cocaine
and
other
drugs
into the
United
States
during
his
25-year
reign,
prosecutors
said in
recent
court
papers.
They
also
said his
“army of
sicarios”
was
under
orders
to
kidnap,
torture
and
murder
anyone
who got
in his
way.
The
defense
argued
he was
framed
by other
traffickers
who
became
government
witnesses
so they
could
get
breaks
in their
own
cases.
They
also
claimed
his
trial
was
tainted
by
jurors
improperly
viewing
media
coverage
of the
highly
publicized
case.
“A
fair
outcome
was a
fair
trial -
that’s
all we
wanted,”
defense
attorney
Jeffrey
Lichtman
told
reporters
Wednesday
outside
the
federal
courthouse.
“It was
not
justice.
We can’t
have a
situation
where
the
jurors
are
running
around
lying to
a judge
about
what
they
were
doing.”
Guzman
has been
largely
cut off
from the
outside
world
since
his
extradition
in 2017.
U.S.
authorities
have
kept him
in an
ultra-secure
unit at
a
Manhattan
jail and
under
close
guard at
his
appearances
at the
Brooklyn
courthouse
where
his case
unfolded.
While
the
trial
was
dominated
by
Guzman’s
persona
as a
near-mythical
outlaw
who
carried
a
diamond-encrusted
handgun
and
stayed
one step
ahead of
the law,
the jury
never
heard
from
Guzman
himself,
except
when he
told the
judge he
wouldn’t
testify.
But
evidence
at
Guzman’s
trial
suggested
his
decision
to stay
quiet at
the
defense
table
was
against
his
nature:
Cooperating
witnesses
told
jurors
he was a
fan of
his own
rags-to-riches
narco
story,
always
eager to
find an
author
or
screenwriter
to tell
it. He
famously
gave an
interview
to
American
actor
Sean
Penn
while he
was a
fugitive,
hiding
in the
mountains
after
accomplices
built a
long
tunnel
to help
him
escape
from a
Mexican
prison.
At
the
trial,
Guzman’s
lawyers
argued
he was
the fall
guy for
other
kingpins
who were
better
at
paying
off top
Mexican
politicians
and law
enforcement
officials
to
protect
them
while
the U.S.
government
looked
the
other
way.
They
said
witnesses’
descriptions
of El
Chapo
leading
a lavish
lifestyle
featuring
private
planes,
beachfront
villas
and a
private
zoo were
overblown,
and that
there’s
no
chance
the U.S.
goverment
could
collect
the
multibillion-dollar
forfeiture.
The
sentencing
was
headline
news in
Mexico,
but it
was seen
as
unlikely
to make
a ripple
in terms
of the
country’s
politics,
security
or the
unabated
drug
trade.
Mexican
security
analyst
Alejandro
Hope
said
Guzman’s
fate
will
have “no
impact”
on
trafficking.
In the
wake of
Guzman’s
arrest
and
extradition,
alleged
capo
Ismael
“El
Mayo”
Zambada
is
believed
to have
long-ago
consolidated
control
of the
Sinaloa
cartel.
“El
Chapo is
now an
old
story,”
Hope
said.
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