Mexican Drug Lord, El Chapo, Found Guilty

By Hendrik Kingo and Caleb Smith

Guzmán, going by the name El Chapo, was convicted earlier this week on numerous convictions. Some of these convictions were the distribution of cocaine, heroin, illegal firearm possession and money laundering. Although he’s convicted of these, he has yet to be sentenced, this verdict though could leave him with life in prison with no bail. Guzmán was arrested on January 2016 after having escaped from a Mexican prison through a system of tunnels five months earlier. Later in 2017 he was extradited to the United States. Having been accused for being behind the very powerful drug cartel Sinaloa, whom is one of the biggest suppliers in drug trafficking in the U.S.

Tuesday's unanimous verdict by a jury in Brooklyn, which was read out in a packed courtroom, followed an 11-week trial. Guzmán was seen wearing a dark suit jacket and tie, “Showed no visible sign of emotion as the verdict was announced”, stated a CBS news reporter. After the trial he was led out of the courtroom to where his lawyer was standing and shook his hand then. The judge, Brian Cogan, who presided over the case the entire time thanked the jurors for the dedication at what he described as a, “complex trial”, also stating, “remarkable and it made me very proud to be an American”. Guzmán's lawyers stated they’d planned to launch an appeal.

Who is EL Chapo? El Chapo or “Shorty” had ran the Sinaloa cartel in northern Mexico. Over the course of time it grew and expanded to become one of the biggest traffickers of drugs in the United States. In 2009 Guzmán entered the Forbes list of the World’s Richest Men at number seven hundred and one. His worth was at an estimated one billion dollars. After this he was accused of having helped export hundreds of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. and having conspired to start manufacturing and distributing heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. He was stated to have hired help such as hit-men who’d carry out hundreds of murders, kidnappings, assaults and other acts of torture against rival organizations.

Why was this case such a significant one? It’s due to the fact that Guzmán is the highest profile Mexican Drug cartel boss so far to stand in trial by the United States. The drug war in Mexico has pit the Mexican and U.S. authorities against the cartels smuggling drugs into the U.S. and cartels fighting each other. It's killed over a hundred thousand or so people so far over the past decade. Guzmán originally gained notoriety for having twice escaped the custody of the Mexicans as well as avoiding arrest in a bunch of other numerous occasions. In his home state he’d had the status as a folk hero. A drug baron standing among others as higher.

In 2016 he gave an interview to Hollywood actor Sean Penn in the Mexican jungle following his escape the previous year and boasted that he was the world’s leading supplier of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. He was later recaptured north west of a town called Los Mochis, during this raid he fled through a drain though he was later captured by troops in a shootout close by. The U.S. indictment against this man was a consolidation of six federal jurisdictions across the country. These included Chicago, Miami and New York. Prosecutors came together with evidence acquired by more than a decades work. It included international partners from Mexico and Colombia as well to build this case. The jurors that were sworn in were all anonymous and had been escorted from the courthouse in Brooklyn by armed marshals after the prosecutors argued that Guzmán had a history of intimidating witnesses by having his goons use scare tactics and even issuing for their murders .

So what are we going to see after this case if he is given life in prison? He’ll probably be sent to a maximum security prison were he’ll serve out his sentence and if he doesn’t make an escape his entire Monarchy over the drug cartel may collapse which would be for the betterment of the surrounding areas in which they operate. Though El Chapo is a very powerful man, he’s messed with the United States order and has enraged the governmental powers by bringing in this ordeal to our country.

Wrongly Convicted: What is 38 years of life worth to you?

By RJ Gaita and Emily Russi

For Californian man Craig Coley 38 years of his life is worth 21 million dollars. Craig Coley (Below) was wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his ex-wife and son in 1978.

inmate and for him to later be pardoned for the crime he didn't commit. The pardon came from state governor Jerry Brown. Mr. Brown called the time Mr. Coley spent incarcerated “unjust” and “extraordinary”. The detective Mike Bender was relieved that Mr. Coley was found innocent and released because of his expressed concern about the case in 1989, feeling as if Mr. Coley was truly innocent.