GUILTY! El Chapo Guzman convicted on all counts in US court – Drug lord headed for life behind bars with no chance of parole
Once most feared cartel kingpin Joaquin ‘el Chapo’ Guzman is found GUILTY on all ten charges in New York drug trafficking trial on Tuesday
Mexican cartel kingpin’s was stone faced as his beauty queen wife welled up with tears and gives him a thumbs
Joaquin Guzman, 61, head of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, was convicted on all 10 counts that were presented to the jury out of 17 indictments
After after six days of deliberations the jury convicted on seven drug trafficking charges, one count engaging in a criminal enterprise, one count money laundering and one count firearms offenses
Significantly, the criminal enterprise count carries a mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole
El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel Aispuro, had tears in her eyes as the verdict was read aloud but gave him a thumbs up when he turned to look at her and smile
He also blew 29-year-old former beauty queen a kiss after learning that he would spend the rest of his life in jail
The trial began in November last year and heard from 56 prosecution witnesses
Joaquin ‘el Chapo’ Guzman, the notorious Mexican drug lord, was found guilty on Tuesday of drug trafficking, criminal enterprise and firearms offenses after a three-month trial in Brooklyn. He will now likely spend the rest of his life in a US prison. He is shown in his 2016 mugshot
Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, head of the notorious Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, has been found guilty on all counts at his New York drug trafficking trial and will spend the rest of his life in US custody.
Guzman rose to become the most important figure in the global drug trade. his reign.
At the height of the cocaine boom in the early ’90s, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was living so large he had four wives, four planes, a yacht, a beach house on every shore, and topped it off with the purchase of his own zoo.
His children and family have continued the hedonistic life style, flaunting their wealth on social media, even while he was on the run.
The 61-year-old drug lord who amassed over $14billion in three decades of drug dealing terror, was convicted on all 10 counts that were presented to the jury on Tuesday after six days of deliberations.
The charges included seven drug trafficking charges, one count of engaging in a criminal enterprise, one count of money laundering and one charge of firearms offenses.
el Chapo arrives the US in early 2017 to begin his trial for drug trafficking related charges paving the road for his ultimate conviction.
Legend of ‘Houdini’ el Chapo the great escape artiste
1993: First arrest in Mexico on drug trafficking charges
2001: Breaks out of jail for the first time with help of guards
February 2014: Rearrested in Mexico after 13 years on the run
July 2015: Breaks out of prison for a second time through secret tunnel
October 2015: Meets with Sean Penn and Kate Del Castillo in Mexico
Days later, the safe house is raided but he escapes
January 8 2016: Captured in Los Michos, Mexico
January 9 2016: Sean Penn’s Rolling Stone article is published
January 2017: Extradited back to the US
October 2017: Netflix publishes documentary about meeting with Del Castillo
November 2017: El Chapo’s lawyers say his mental health is deteriorating
November 2018: Trial finally begins after jury deliberations
February 5: Closing arguments in the trial
February 12: Jury reaches GUILTY verdict on all counts
The criminal enterprise count carries a mandatory life sentence.
Among those in the courtroom on Tuesday to watch the infamous drug dealer meet his fate was his 29-year-old, ex-beauty queen wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro.
After the verdict was read out and translated for the defendant, he turned to look at her and blow her a kiss. She smiled in response and, with tears in her eyes, gave him a thumbs up. The pair who share 7-year-old twin daughters have been married since she was 18. Coronel has worn headphones throughout the trial so that she could understand the proceedings.
Her husband appeared emotionless as the verdict was translated to him.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the cartel head’s 29-year-old, ex-beauty queen wife was present in New York’s Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday for hear her husband’s verdict
After his last break from a Mexican maximum security facility, super escape artist el Chapo was finally captured for the last time in Mexico in Jan 2016. He’d eluded authorities for more than a year
They spoke at length about how he ordered killings and controlled a multi-billion dollar Mexican cartel including when he was on the run from Mexican authorities after breaking out of prison.
El Chapo’s defense spent just 30 minutes trying to negate the months of witness testimony. They claimed he is being framed and that the real leader of the Sinaloa cartel is someone else.
Initially, El Chapo was indicted on 17 counts. – The jury however had to decide on 10.
They were weapons offenses, money laundering, criminal enterprise and, predominantly, drug trafficking.
Tuesday’s verdict is the drug dealer’s third conviction.
He has escaped from Mexican prison twice in the last 20 years but was handed over to the US in January 2016 by President, Enrique Nieto, who has been accused of taking pay-offs from Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel in exchange for leaving him alone.
Nieto has always denied the allegations.
Since he was brought to the US, Guzman has been held in solitary confinement in prisons in Manhattan and in a secret location for the duration of his trial.
When it began, the NYPD had to close the Brooklyn Bridge to ensure there was no interference as he was transported to the courthouse for the first time in an extraordinary security measure.
The trial, which began in November, has attracted Mexican television stars and the gaze of the world’s media. It was not without obstacle.
Secrecy and amid security concerns: No cameras have been allowed in the courtroom since the start of the three-month trial but the defendant has been depicted in sketches such as this one
Witha a well earned reputation as a super escape artiste, el Chapo’s Houdini act saw him break out of prison twice over the last 20 years to the mortification of the Mexican authorities he and his cronies have long-claimed are corrupt.
After his last jail break by tunneling out of from a Mexican maximum security facility, el Chapo Guzman was finally captured for the last time in Los Michos, Mexico in January 2016.
He had eluded authorities for more than a year
In this 2016 image taken inside his prison cell in Mexico after his recapture, el Chapo is seen staring at the ceiling
Among the most challenging stages was jury selection when dozens of people had to be dismissed from the jury pool after admitting that they would fear for their life if selected.
Others were rejected after confessing to admiring Guzman including one man who even asked a court bailiff to help him get the defendant’s autograph.
The jurors have been kept partially sequestered, and anonymous, for their safety.
There were allegations at one stage that the defendant was secretly communicating with his former beauty queen wife who was seen using a forbidden cell phone during some proceedings. The prosecution case was built almost entirely on the testimony of cooperating witnesses – criminal associates of the drug lord, as well as FBI agents testimony.
The making of a drug world legend: Guzman is shown in 1993, after his first arrest as the leader of the ruthless Sinaloa cartel that went on to dominate the drug trade and the creation of his infamous reputation for breaking out of incarceration
The epic trial often unfolded more like a made for TV drama.
The prosecution through a series of former close associates and employees chronicled Guzman’s emergence as leader of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel over the course of three decades, as witnesses detailed his pivot from a lavish lifestyle in the 1990s to hiding out in the mountains, on the run from authorities, the following decade.
Testimony from those closest to Guzman ranged from comical to chilling, including a naked escape from law enforcement through a tunnel network he’d built under his bathtub.
Not averse to getting his own hands bloody, witnesses detailed the cold-blooded murders he himself committed.
The accounts painted Guzman as a ruthless and calculating drug lord, who was paranoid to the point of obsession, going so far as to install spyware on the devices used by his associates, wife and mistresses.
Thanks to the kingpin’s snooping, the FBI managed to score access to not only those communications but also Guzman’s own encrypted servers after agents flipped his IT guy.
Prosecutors say they caught the elusive El Chapo on tape between 100 and 200 times, and wiretapped some 800 calls after the cartel’s in-house geek Cristian Rodriguez helped them decode its encrypted computer system.
That access, in addition to other intercepts and a trove of belongings the kingpin abandoned at an oceanside mansion during a raid, were critical in his conviction.
The tracking device that messages Guzman had the Sinaloa Cartel’s IT guy put on his wife Emma Coronel’s phone helped feds track him. The FBI agents flipped the techie
The trial also served as an expose on the bloody gang turf wars across Mexico, as rival cartels battled for unencumbered access to the United States , and its huge appetite for cocaine.
Prosecutors detailed in opening statements how Guzman’s organization had trafficked in more than 328 million lines of cocaine to the US.
Jurors were shown stockpiles of seized drugs, in addition to piles of military grade arsenal discovered during various raids.
The panel also heard of rampant corruption across the country, ranging from bribes paid to low-level law enforcement to allegations of multimillion-dollar payments that implicated the current Mexican president and his predecessors.
Guzman’s defense spent the case attempting to undermine the integrity of the cooperating witnesses who took the stand against Guzman.
His lawyers repeatedly characterized him as a scapegoat who’d been persecuted, while his at-large partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, was allowed to run free.
el Chapo was recaptured in Feb. 22, 2014 after 13 years on the run. Tuesday’s verdict brings an end to Guzman’s infamous reign as the leader of the Sinaloa cartel during which he reputedly amassed over $14billion and killed thousands of those who crossed him
The Guzman defense further argued that the testimony given by his former employeees and associates be discarded. That they could not be trusted because they were violent criminals.
Before the case even reached trial, his attorneys argued that he had been mistreated while in custody and that his health was declining. They suggested that he was losing his mind as a result of the solitary confinement he was subjected to and that his memory was also imploding.
His wife at a point appealed that his health was failing because he was not getting adequate conjugal visitation
During the course of the trial, the only people who were allowed to visit him were his twin seven-year-old daughters.
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