As expected, notorious drug dealer El Chapo aka Joaquín Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. El Chapo was found guilty in February for various crimes. It is not a surprise to anyone, including El Chapo that he will spend the rest of his life in jail.
The judge ordered El Chapo to prison for life, plus 30 years effectively ensuring that Chapo will die in a U.S. federal prison. Chapo received life for counts one through eight and an additional 30 years for count nine. Chapo was also sentenced to another 240 months to run concurrently with his other sentences for count ten.
Additionally, the judge ordered Chapo to forfeit $12.7 billion. Restitution will be decided in 90 days. Although Chapo was ordered to surrender the $12.7 billion, the U.S. government has yet to announce it has located any of Chapo’s assets. As such it remains unclear, how much if any, of Chapo’s assets will be recovered by the U.S. government. If any of Chapo’s assets are recovered, the Mexican government will assert it is entitled to all or part of any assets recovered.
El Chapo is expected to remain in the Manhattan jail for about 60 days while his case is appealed. After that he is expected to be transferred to the ADX super-max prison in Colorado. However, the judge left it up to the U.S. Marshals Service to decide when El Chapo would be transferred and to which federal prison.
El Chapo addressed the judge before sentencing. He told the judge that he has been tortured while in the U.S. judicial system. He added that his prosecution was corruptly conducted and that his conviction violated his rights.
If you want to see read about the court proceedings, you can do so via my book; Convicting Chapo available at Amazon. Use this link to purchase it.
