The conviction of drug trafficker “El Chapo” upheld on appeal in the United States

Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman, alias "

", sentenced in July 2019 in New York to life imprisonment for his role at the head of the Sinaloa cartel, saw his appeal dismissed in the United States, announced the federal prosecutor's office from Brooklyn.

In a 44-page court decision, dated Tuesday, January 25, Judge Jon Newman considers that the ten arguments raised by El Chapo must be rejected and his conviction confirmed.

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Considered at the time to be the most powerful drug trafficker in the world, Joaquin Guzman was convicted in 2019 of vast drug trafficking between Mexico and the United States, as well as of illegal use of a firearm and money laundering.

He had been sentenced to life, with a symbolic sentence of 30 additional years in prison for the use of automatic weapons.

1200 tons of cocaine

Joaquin Guzman, now 64, was accused of smuggling at least 1,200 tons of cocaine into the United States over a quarter century.

During the trial, the prosecution showed that the Mexican had ordered the assassination or put himself to death at least 26 people, sometimes after having tortured them.

They were informants, traffickers from rival organizations, police officers, collaborators and even members of his own family.

Among their main arguments, El Chapo's lawyers questioned his conviction because one of the jurors had confided that he had learned of elements of the case from the press during the trial, or that his total isolation since his extradition in the United States in January 2017 prevented him from preparing his defence.

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El Chapo, known for his spectacular escape from a Mexican prison through a tunnel in 2015, is being held at the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado (western United States).

His wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, 32, was sentenced in late November 2021 by a US federal judge to three years in prison after admitting her involvement in the Sinaloa Cartel trafficking.

She was arrested in February 2021 at Washington airport.