Drug lord “El Chapo” guilty on all counts
The Latest on the verdict for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s U.S. trial (all times local):
UPDATE
12:45 p.m.
The notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been found guilty on all counts in an international drug distribution trial in New York.
Jurors convicted him on all 10 counts that are likely to put him behind bars for the rest of his life. He is set to be sentenced on June 25.
The 61-year-old Guzman broke out of Mexican prisons twice before he was finally recaptured and extradited to the U.S. in 2017.
Federal prosecutors put on more than 50 witnesses over three months detailing how Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel amassed billions of dollars importing tons of cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana into the U.S.
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Jurors indicate they have reached a verdict in the trial of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
They had returned Tuesday to grapple with the complicated case at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn.
The trial testimony lasted nearly three months and the jurors have been tasked with deciding on 10 separate counts.
The evidence included testimony from 14 cooperators. Many described Guzman’s willingness to use violence against enemies of a cartel that prosecutors say smuggled at least 200 tons (181 metric tons) of cocaine into the U.S. over two decades.
The defense has accused prosecution cooperators of making him a scapegoat for their own crimes.
After three months of testimony, jurors have been going through a verdict form that asks them to make 53 decisions about whether prosecutors have proven various elements of the 10-count indictment.
Many are related to the top count, accusing him of running a continuing criminal enterprise.
Jurors could find Guzman guilty of only some of those violations and still convict him of crimes serious enough to put him in prison for decades.