The trial jury in New York against the Mexican Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, prosecuted for drug trafficking, declared him guilty on Tuesday of the ten charges against him as responsible for the Sinaloa cartel, for which he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The jury number eleven and spokesman of the popular court delivered to the judge of the federal court of Brooklyn (New York), Brian Cogan, a paper with his decision, which was read by the judge after warning the assistants in the room that they could not Express any reaction to the reading of the verdict.
The judge transmitted that the decision of the jury was to condemn for the ten charges to the “Chapo”, and only did not reach unanimity for that decision in two violations of one of the charges, specifically focused on distribution of cocaine in 2007 and another of marijuana in 2012.
Judge Brian Cogan now has the mission to establish the sentence of what has been the most mediatic and important case of drug trafficking in the United States, for which he has summoned the court for next June 25.
Guzmán Loera, 61, dressed in blue and dark tie today, has faced a three-month trial in federal court for the eastern district of New York, Brooklyn, for ten charges related to drug trafficking, the main one to keep a continuing criminal enterprise, for which he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The trial was conducted under strict security measures, including that of being the only judicial process held on the eighth floor of the court, in addition to a contingent of security agents and members of the canine unit inside and outside the court .
The jury heard 56 verdicts before its verdict, of which 14 were cooperators of the US Government, including Ramírez Abadía, undoubtedly the most striking, both for his face disfigured by plastic surgery to avoid being recognized by the authorities, as well as for the coldness with which he spoke of the murders.
The witnesses, imprisoned in the USA and they expect a reduction of sentence for their cooperation, were partners of the “Chapo”, as the Colombian alias “Chupeta”, or very close employees like Jesus “the King” Zambada and his nephew Vicentillo Zambada, whose statements the jury reviewed during the first four days of deliberations.
During the years in front of the Norte del Valle cartel, “Chupeta” exported some 400,000 tons of drugs to the US, most of them with the Mexican cartel, for which they used various means of transport such as tunnels, speedboats, watercraft, fishing and even cans of jalapeños.
The jury in this case has also been surrounded by strict security measures, including the prohibition of disclosing their names, where they live or work, and being escorted daily from their home to the courthouse by federal sheriffs.
The trial against the head of the Mexican Cartel of Sinaola started last November and ended on February 1, after the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense of the “Chapo” made their final arguments. (EFEUSA) .-
