El Chapo Found Guilty on All
Counts; Faces Life in Prison
By Elisha Fieldstadt and Tom Winter
The Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán was found guilty Tuesday of crimes spanning more than a quarter of a century, during which prosecutors said he smuggled more than 200 tons of cocaine into the United States.
After an almost three-month trial and six days of deliberations, a New York jury found the Sinaloa cartel leader guilty on each of the 10 charges he was tried on, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and multiple counts of distributing large amounts of narcotics internationally.
Guzmán, 61, now faces life in prison. The U.S. had agreed not to seek the death penalty while trying to extradite him from Mexico, which has abolished capital punishment. He is due to be sentenced June 25.
Richard Donoghue, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said he expected Guzmán to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"It is a sentence from which there is no escape and no return," he said.
"His conviction is a victory for the American people who have suffered so long and so much while Guzman made billions pouring poison over our southern border," Donoghue added. "This conviction is a victory for the Mexican people, who have lost more than 100,000 lives in drug-related violence."
When the jurors filed into the courtroom with a verdict Tuesday, they all looked down as Guzmán scanned their faces.
After the verdict was read, Guzmán shook hands with his attorneys. As he exited the courtroom, he put his hand on his heart and nodded to his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro.
U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan lauded the seven women and five men of the jury, saying that in 13 years on the bench, he hadn't seen a jury pay so much attention to detail, and how their diligence made him "very proud to be an American."
Jeffrey Lichtman, one of Guzmán's defense attorneys, said that his client was shockingly " very upbeat" after the verdict was read. "He was bringing our spirits up, which was surprising," Lichtman said. "This is a positive guy."
Lichtman said the defense team would appeal the verdict.
"The appeal will be fought just as this trial was fought. This was balls to the wall, and that’s how we fight cases," he said.
"We fought like complete savages and left it all on the battlefield for Joaquin Guzman," Lichtman said, adding that representing Guzmán was "an absolute honor and a pleasure."
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