NEW YORK — Drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who once headed a criminal enterprise that spanned continents and triggered waves of bloodshed throughout his native Mexico, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for his conviction Tuesday of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and other drug charges, CNN reported.
Guzmán was found guilty Tuesday of all 10 federal criminal counts against him in U.S. federal district court in Brooklyn, NY.
The vast courtroom fell silent as the verdict was read. Jurors did not look at the defendant, who pocketed nearly $14 billion as the decades-long head of the murderous Sinaloa cartel.
There was no visible reaction from Guzmán, whose conviction on the top charge of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise carries a mandatory term of life in prison, according to CNN. He will be sentenced on June 25.
“It is a sentence of which there is no escape and no return, ” said US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard Donoghue.
US District Judge Brian Cogan confirmed the verdicts with each of the eight women and four men on the jury, telling them later their conduct on the panel “made me very proud to be an American.”
One of Guzmán’s lawyers described him as “extremely upbeat” after the verdict.
“He’s a fighter,” Guzmán defense attorney Michael Lambert said. “He’s not done yet by far.”
Source: CNN
