Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, infamous former head of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s most powerful drug organization, was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years on July 17, after an 11-week trial that ended in February. The cartel is known for its widespread distribution network that includes the Bronx. 

Guzman was found guilty on ten federal charges, including murder conspiracies, engaging a continuing criminal enterprise and other drug-related charges. 

The sentencing came a month after 18 people with ties to the cartel were charged by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office with dealing heroin and enough fentanyl to “kill the population of New York” in the South Bronx following a drug seizure on May 28 worth $7 million. 

At least two of those charged in June had connections to Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights. Fifty pounds (23 kilos) of fentanyl, a semi-automatic rifle, and 189 rounds of ammunition were recovered from an undisclosed location in the borough during the takedown. 

It is expected that Guzman will be transported to a maximum-security, federal prison in Colorado in about 60 days giving his U.S.-based legal team some time to work on his appeal, which has already been filed. 

As part of the sentence handed down by United States District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn federal court, Guzman was also ordered to pay a $12.7 billion penalty, which both his Mexican- and U.S.-based legal teams commented on. Speaking in Spanish outside the courthouse, José Luis Gonzalez Mesa, Guzman’s Mexican counsel, said that the drug kingpin’s fortune belongs to the government of Mexico, and not the government of the United States. 

Meanwhile, one of Guzman’s U.S. defense attorneys, Jeffrey Lichtman, was doubtful the money would ever be recovered, calling it
“a fiction.” 

“They’ve been looking for his assets for how long? Decades?” asked Lichtman. “Before they get to $12.7 billion, how about they get to dollar one? When they get to dollar one, wake me up. Right now, they’re at zero.” 

Indeed, Lichtman was critical of the judicial process, saying repeatedly that all Guzman had wanted was a fair trial in the United States but that the judge had denied Guzman’s request for a hearing to investigate possible juror misconduct.  

“At the end of the day, all that mattered was the government’s evidence no matter how flawed it may have been, no matter how many lunatics and sociopaths and psychopaths that it depended on,” he said. 

“We learned that up to five jurors broke the law, violated the law while they were judging Mr. Guzman for crimes and nevertheless, we couldn’t even get a hearing to determine what actually happened because, as we all know, had we had that hearing, chaos would have ensued and we would have been back here for round two and that was something that the United States government could never have.”  

He added, “You can bury Joaquín Guzman under tons of steel in Colorado and make him disappear but you’re never gonna remove the stink from this verdict due to the failure to order a hearing on the misconduct of the jury in this case.”  

Appearing at times somewhat exasperated, Lichtman responded to comments by the press that Guzman did not appear to have shown any remorse for his crimes. “I don’t know that today’s a day for remorse. They want him to express remorse because, based on their trial where they said that he was guilty – you know what? Maybe they should express remorse for not giving a hearing in a case in which half the jury cheated and lied to the judge, so respectfully, I don’t know what they expected today,” he said. 

“Would remorse have changed the statutory minimum of life in prison?” he asked. “Of course not. Why are the rules different for Joaquín Guzman? He wanted justice. That’s what he was mourning today, his lack of getting justice.”  

Guzman’s appeal will be handled by defense attorney, Mark Fernich, who is also representing alleged sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. “We have major, major issues for the appeal; obviously, the inhumane conditions of confinement that were imposed in this case and then interfered with his and with anybody’s ability to present a defense,” he said.  

“And as a pre-trial detainee who’s been convicted of nothing, nothing, he was subjected to conditions that, let’s face it, are a functional equivalent to a living death penalty and that’s not justice in the United States of America, and that’s in no way the kind of justice that the framers of our constitution ever contemplated. That will surely come up on the appeal.” 

Gonzalez Mesa also spoke passionately on the topic of Guzman’s treatment by U.S. Authorities, suggesting that his human rights had been violated during the course of the trial. He is requesting Guzman’s repatriation to Mexico.

Present for the sentencing were various representatives from the judiciary, the police, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security and the FBI. 

Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Brian Benczkowski, spoke to the press after the sentencing. “The long road that led Chapo Guzman from the mountains of Sinaloa to the courthouse behind us today was paved with death, drugs and destruction but it ended today with justice,” he said. 

“Mr. Guzman thought, for more than 25 years, that he was untouchable, that there was no problem affecting the Sinaloa cartel that he couldn’t bribe, intimidate, torture or kill his way out of.” Benczkowski said the sentence brought a measure of justice to the country of Mexico whose institutions, he said, were corrupted for decades by Guzman and the Sinaloa cartel.  

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Rich Donahue said the sentence was significant and well deserved. “It means never again will Guzman pour poison over our borders making billions while innocent lives are lost to drug violence and drug addiction,” he said. 

“We cannot undo the violence, misery and devastation inflicted on countless individuals and communities by the drugs that Mr. Guzman and his organization inflicted on our country for more than two decades, but we can ensure that he spends every minute of every day of the rest of his life in a prison here in the United States. The same fate awaits anyone who would seek to take his place.”  

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