Once one of the world's most powerful and notorious criminals, Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was sentenced to life imprisonment -- the mandatory punishment for a host of crimes spanning a quarter-century.
Guzman, the 62-year-old former co-leader of Mexico's mighty Sinaloa drug cartel, was Wednesday convicted in February in US federal court on a spate of charges, including smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States.
The much-anticipated hearing in New York capped a dramatic legal saga and saw Guzman -- wearing a gray suit, lilac shirt, purple tie and trademark mustache -- somberly take in his punishment.
"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.
When entering and before leaving the courtroom, he touched his heart and blew a kiss to his wife Emma Coronel, who was barred from all contact with him during more than two years of pre-trial detention.
The charges against Guzman, which include money laundering and weapons-related offenses, carried a mandatory life sentence.
Also Read
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.
So far, US authorities have not recovered a dime.
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."
Complaining bitterly that he was unable to hug his twin daughters, who did not attend the hearing, Guzman said "the United States is no better than any other corrupt country that you do not respect."
Prosecutors won their request to tack on a symbolic extra 30 years in prison for the use of firearms in his business, which Cogan said he imposed because the "overwhelming evil is so severe."
A Colombian woman who prosecutors say survived a hit the kingpin ordered tearfully read a statement in court Wednesday, saying the escape cost her "a high price -- I lost my family, my friends, I became a shadow without a name."
"Never again will Guzman pour poison over our borders making billions while innocent lives are lost to drug violence and drug addiction."
In Sinaloa's capital Culiacan, 46-year-old Lupita Ramos told AFP Guzman "was also a good person who helped people in need."
"The Sinaloa cartel is not 'El Chapo,'" he said. "In Culiacan there are 20 Chapos."
Still, New York's head special agent for Homeland Security Investigations Angel Melendez said the sentencing marked "the end of the line."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content