El Chapo awaits life in prison sentence by US judge

In this file photo taken on February 13, 2019 shows a view of the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, also known as the ADX or “Supermax”, in Florence, Colorado. After a dramatic decades-long run as one of the world’s most notorious druglords, there is little suspense about what will happen in a New York courtroom on Wednesday: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. (Photo by Jason Connolly / AFP)

NEW YORK — After a run as one of the world’s most powerful and notorious criminals, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to be sentenced to life in prison when he appears in a New York courtroom on Wednesday.

Guzman, the 62-year-old former leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, was convicted in February of crimes spanning a quarter of a century, including trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and marijuana to the United States.

The charges, which also include money laundering and weapons-related offenses, carry a mandatory life sentence.

Last week, prosecutors asked US federal judge Brian Cogan to tack on a symbolic extra 30 years in prison for the use of firearms in his business, portraying Guzman as “ruthless and bloodthirsty.”

They also want Guzman to turn over $12.7 billion, based on a conservative estimate of revenues from his cartel’s drug sales in the United States. So far, US authorities have not recovered a dime.

Guzman is considered to be the most powerful drug lord since Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, killed in a police shootout in 1993.

“El Chapo” (“Shorty”) was the co-leader of the still-powerful Sinaloa organization.

During the three-month trial in New York, jurors heard evidence of Guzman’s misdeeds. Witnesses described the cartel boss beating, shooting and even burying alive those who got in his way, including informants and rival gang members.

At least one of Guzman’s victims – a woman who prosecutors said survived a hit ordered by the kingpin – will speak at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.

In this Feb. 22, 2014 file photo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, is escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture in the beach resort town of Mazatlan. Federal prosecutors want to recover $12.6 billion in drug money they say was generated by the Mexican drug lord. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn asked a judge Friday, July 5, 2019, to order Guzman to forfeit that sum. They called the amount a “conservative” estimate of the cash Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel earned distributing drugs in the United States. Guzman was convicted in February of murder conspiracy and drug trafficking. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

‘Alcatraz of the Rockies’

Guzman launched his career working in the cannabis fields of his home state of Sinaloa. Now, he is likely to spend the rest of his days at the “Alcatraz of the Rockies” – the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado.

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.

Since his extradition from Mexico in 2017, Guzman has been held in solitary confinement at a high-security prison in Lower Manhattan.

He has repeatedly complained about the conditions of his detention via his attorneys – notably that his windowless cell is constantly lit.

On Wednesday, Guzman – who famously escaped Mexican prisons in 2001 and again in 2015 – could see his wife Emma Coronel and their two daughters for the last time.

“The government’s request of life plus 30 years is a farce,” said Guzman’s attorney Eduardo Balarezo. “Joaquin’s conviction and incarceration for drug trafficking will change nothing in the so-called war on drugs.”

New York’s special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan acknowledged that taking El Chapo out of the equation did not diminish the Sinaloa cartel’s influence.

“We believe that’s the one that supplies most of the drugs coming into the US,” she told AFP. /kga