via CNBC:
- The Mexican drug lord known as “El Chapo” was sentenced to life in prison plus thirty years and ordered to forfeit $12.6 billion.
- The kingpin, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman Loera, accused the U.S. government of corruption and of torturing him during his confinement.
- El Chapo was convicted of overseeing a vast criminal operation, the Sinaloa Cartel, which funneled immense quantities of narcotics, including heroin and methamphetamine, into the United States, earning billions of dollars.
The Mexican drug lord known as “El Chapo” was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison plus thirty years at a hearing where he accused the U.S. government of corruption and of torturing him during his confinement.
El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman Loera, also was ordered to forfeit $12.6 billion during his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York.
Judge Brian Cogan, who cited what he called Guzman’s “overwhelming evil” in announcing the mandated sentence, will determine later how much he must pay in restitution.
The kingpin, who had twice escaped maximum security prisons in Mexico, was convicted earlier this year of presiding over a vast criminal operation, the Sinaloa Cartel, which funneled immense quantities of narcotics, including heroin and methamphetamine, into the United States.
Guzman did not testify during the three-month trial, but broke his silence Wednesday.
He claimed, in a tear-choked statement, that he had been denied justice during his trial and confinement in New York City.
“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,” El Chapo told Cogan, according to the New York Daily News.
“I drink unsanitary water, no air or sunlight, and the air pumped in makes my ears and throat hurt. In order to sleep, I put toilet paper in my ears. My wife had not been allowed to visit, and I can’t hug my daughters,” he said, according to NBC News. “This has been psychological, emotional and mental torture 24 hours a day.”