"El Chapo" was sentenced to life imprisonment after stating that his trial was unfair

At the trial, witnesses testified that Guzman had ordered and sometimes participated in the torture and murder of alleged enemies in the cartel.

"The long road that led El Chapo Guzman from the Sinaloa Mountains to the courthouse was paved with deaths, drugs and destruction, but it ended today with justice," said Wednesday the Deputy Attorney General, Brian A. Benczkowski.

"Nobody escaped," said defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman at "New Day." "It's absolutely impossible, it's not even a problem."

Lichtman later said on Wednesday that Guzman had been taken to the prison.

The stories of Guzman prison escape weighed in the minds of prosecutors, both during his trial and after his conviction.

In 2001, Guzman escaped by hiding in a laundry trolley. He spent the next 13 years hiding in and around his homeland, Sinaloa.

He was retaken in 2014, but his former partner, Damaso Lopez, testified at Guzman's trial that he, his wife and family, had kept in touch with him while he was incarcerated in the city. Mexican of Altiplano. Lopez testified that Guzman had requested the construction of a tunnel directly into his cell.

The one-kilometer tunnel, powered by electricity and ventilation, had been under construction for a month and Lopez learned that Guzman "was hearing noises where he was, those digging (the tunnel) were already underneath" .

Guzman used it to escape the prison a second time, July 11, 2015.

El Chapo blows kisses in court

Guzman's wife, Emma Coronel, arrived in court Wednesday morning for her conviction before US District Judge Brian Cogan, who presided over his trial. She is not allowed to visit Guzman or to correspond with him in prison. It is limited to phone calls and visits by some family members, including his 8-year-old twin daughters.

In court, El Chapo spotted Coronel, gave him a kiss, and touched her heart twice. She returned his kiss and blew it.

During his statement, his voice trembled several times. And when he left the yard, he kissed his wife twice, whom she brought back, which could be their last goodbye.

Reasons for appeal?

The defense lawyer, Lichtman, described the criminal proceedings as "trial-witnesses" and stated that the jurors had lied to the judge about what they were doing during the proceedings, an issue he thought , was the best chance of appeal.

He also said that the government's plan to recover $ 12.6 billion in confiscation was a fiction.

"When they reach the dollar 1, wake me up, for the moment there is not any (in dollars) so I do not know if we'll ever see anything with that. It's a fiction, "he said.

Lawyer Mariel Colon, who has regularly visited Guzman in prison before, during and after his trial, is optimistic about his chances on appeal. But if the call does not succeed, "then (the sentencing) will be the last time the public will see El Chapo," Colon told CNN. "It could also be the last time El Chapo could see his wife."

Even if Guzman appealed, it would be unlikely that he would appear in court, Colon said.

In the months following Guzman's conviction by a jury, he ceded the right to his name so that Coronel could create a line of clothing bearing the El Chapo mark and asked for better conditions of detention at Manhattan Prison where he is detained.

Cogan rejected Guzman's request for a new trial and a hearing to investigate the claims.

Until he was transferred to Supermax Prison, Guzman stayed at the Metropolitan Correction Center, a federal prison in Manhattan. Members of his legal team can visit him every day of the week and he is allowed to receive a call from his sister every 15 or 20 days, said Colon. But once he's transferred to Colorado, lawyers' visits may be more limited, she said.

"What we are really discussing is the call," Colon said. "We really need to discuss as much as we can now because we will not be able to visit him regularly, nor now for the call."

Enhanced security in New York

Since Guzman's third arrest in 2016 – when he was extradited to the United States – he is under close scrutiny. He was brought to New York, where he remained during his trial and sentence.

The security surrounding Guzman's trial was so tight that the Brooklyn Bridge was closed every week to allow Guzman to be transferred into a motorcade – with helicopter escort – from the MCC to the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse for his trial of a duration of several months.

While Guzman was detained in the United States, his communications were limited to members of his legal team and his sister, with occasional visits from his twins. He is not allowed to meet his wife. And with his lawyers, he is only allowed to discuss aspects of his case.

Since his conviction, Guzman's legal team has filed applications for improvement of conditions of detention at the MCC, where he is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in his 10 x 8 cell. lawyers say that since he was brought to the United States he has spent more than two years without any access to fresh air or natural light, adding that he has to sleep with the light lit in his cell, conditions that, according to the lawyers, are "scars psychologically". He also asked for two hours of outdoor exercise a week.

Cogan rejected Guzman's requests to improve conditions of detention.

Prosecutors said the only place for outdoor exercise lay on the roof of the MCC, surrounded by high-rise buildings in Lower Manhattan and covered with a protective mesh . They worried about possible evacuation plans from the infamous former drug lord and cited a 1981 jailbreak attempt at that very spot where a detainee's badociates hijacked a helicopter and tried to cut through the screen screens surrounding the roof.

Colon tries to prepare Guzman for the conditions that will prevail at the Colorado Prison.

"It's worse than where it is right now," she said. Colon added that Guzman's isolation from his family will be difficult. "It's sad, it's stressful, it's emotionally heartbreaking," she said.