NEW YORK - Once one of the world's most powerful and notorious criminals, Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was sentenced to life imprisonment Wednesday -- the mandatory punishment for a hos
NEW YORK - Once one of the world's most powerful and notorious criminals, Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was sentenced to life imprisonment Wednesday -- the mandatory punishment for a host of crimes spanning a quarter-century.
"There was no justice here," Guzman declared in Spanish, expressing no regret as he delivered what were likely his final public words before he is taken to a supermax federal prison to live out his days. US Federal Judge Brian Cogan tacked 30 years onto the sentence and ordered the drug lord to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture -- a sum based on a conservative estimate of revenues from his cartel's sales in the United States.In the Brooklyn courtroom, Guzman said prayers from supporters had given him "strength to endure this great torture," which he called "one of the most inhuman that I have ever experienced... a lack of respect for my human dignity.
During his three-month trial in New York, jurors heard evidence from 56 government witnesses, who described the cartel boss beating, shooting and even burying alive those who crossed him, including informants and rival gang members. Current inmates include convicted "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, the British "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and the Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is awaiting execution.
"Never again will Guzman pour poison over our borders making billions while innocent lives are lost to drug violence and drug addiction."The sentencing was met with mixed reactions on Guzman's home turf, where some credit the drug lord with building beneficial public infrastructure like roads and schools.
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