In this courtroom drawing, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, second from left, stares at the jury as the judge reads the verdict in his drug trafficking trail on Tuesday in Brooklyn. With him are an interpreter, left, and defense attorneys Eduardo Balarezo, right, and William Purpura. (Elizabeth Williams / Associated Press)
Joaquin Guzman, the Mexican drug lord known as “El Chapo,” was found guilty Tuesday in an international narcotics smuggling trial that marked a triumph for the U.S. Justice Department and a steep fall for a brutal narco legend who ruled with a diamond-encrusted pistol on his hip.
The seven-woman, five-man jury took six days to find Guzman guilty of all 10 criminal counts. The 61-year-old, who has escaped from two Mexican prisons, now will almost certainly spend the rest of his life behind bars in the United States. Prosecutors will ask that Guzman be given life with no possibility of parole when he is sentenced June 25.
“It is a sentence from which there is no escape and no return,” said U.S. Atty. Richard Donoghue outside federal court in Brooklyn, as snow fell.
