Notorious drug Lord El Chapo to be jailed for life after being found guilty by court

Notorious drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is set to be jailed for life after he was found guilty on 10 counts of drug trafficking in a US court.

The Mexican drug lord is alleged to have controlled the exportation of hundreds of tonnes of cocaine into the US and also ordered the assassination of hundreds of people. 

The 61-year-old was arrested in January 2016 after he escaped from prison via a tunnel five months previously.

The slippery boss has escaped from custody several times, hence his increased notoriety.

He has now been found guilty in a federal court in New York on all 10 counts of drug trafficking. The cartel kingpin was once one of the richest people in the world and was listed on Forbes’ rich list in 2009.

During the trial, the court heard how Guzmán managed to escape from maximum-security Altiplano prison. A GPS watch was smuggled through to Guzmán’s cell and his sons bought a property on the periphery of the prison. From this point, diggers crafted a tunnel to his cell and he escaped using an adapted motorcycle.

Guzmán is the most high-profile drug trafficker to be trialled in the US. 

Jurors for the trail were anonymous and provided with armed escorts, as prosecutors argued that Guzmán had a reputation for intimidating and even killing witnesses.

The ‘drug war’ between US and Mexican officials and drug traffickers has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives across the course of more than a decade.

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