‘El Chapo’ found guilty
Mexican mobster Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was found guilty Tuesday by a New York jury of crimes spanning a quarter of a century as head of one of the world’s most powerful drugs gangs. The 61-year-old former head of the Sinaloa cartel -- famed for his brazen escapes from Mexican prisons -- faces a possible life sentence after being convicted of smuggling tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States.
He was also found guilty of money laundering and illegal weapons possession charges. In a three-month trial that unfolded like a real-life telenovela, Guzman’s former beauty queen wife and a parade of his lovers and henchmen took the witness stand under the gaze of the onetime drugs kingpin.
Guzman’s lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman asked the jury not to convict on the basis of the “garbage” testimony of government witnesses. Lichtman contended that Guzman was merely a “scapegoat,” and that the real culprit in the drug trafficking operations was Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel.
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