This archive report was first published on 22 July 2019.
On July 22, 2019, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, the former co-leader of Mexico's feared Sinaloa drug cartel, was sentenced to life in prison in a New York federal courtroom.
According to court documents, Guzman, 62, was convicted in February of smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana into the United States.
As part of his sentence, Guzman was also ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture, a sum based on a conservative estimate of revenues from his cartel's sales in the United States.
Just a day after his sentencing, Guzman's new lawyer, Marc Fernich, filed an appeal, challenging the life sentence.
