text: El Chapo Guzman| El Chapo sentenced to life in prison: What made 'Shorty' the world's most feared drug lord
  Updated Jul 18, 2019 | 21:12 IST
  Notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, also known as "El Chapo" was sentenced to life in prison by a US court on Wednesday for trafficking tons of drugs into US and for being involved in multiple murders
  Joaquín Guzmán, El Chapo | &nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspAP, File Image
  Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday
  He has been found guilty of trafficking drugs into US and involved in multiple murders among other charges
  US Treasury Department has described him as the most "powerful drug trafficker in the world"
  New York: When a US court on Wednesday sentenced Joaquín Guzmán to life in prison, it brought an end to one of the most notorious criminal careers in the history.
  Guzmán, popularly known as "El Chapo"- which means "Shorty" in Spanish – has been regarded as one of the most feared Mexican drug lords who made a name for himself for both his penchant to elude authorities using tunnels and for executing brutal murders.
  62-year-old Guzmán was found guilty by a jury in February of trafficking a huge amount of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana across the US-Mexico border and for being involved in several murder conspiracies as the key leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, which has the dubious distinction of being one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking organisations.
  While announcing the sentencing of the drug lord, US District Judge Brian Cogan accused Guzmán of being "overwhelming evil" which he said had become evident during the 12-week trial in the court.
  The judge awarded him a life sentence plus 30 years, which was mandatory under the law.
  Guzmán, or "Shorty" (his height is 5.6 feet), had lived life on the lam, evading the authorities during the three-decade-long period of his time as one of the "most wanted" drug lord.
  US demands $12.7 billion in judgment against 'El Chapo'
  With 'El Chapo' behind bars, life comes to standstill in his hometown Badiraguato
  Twice he had escaped the maximum-security prisons in Mexico – in 2001 and 2015 – and managed to run his drug cartel even when he spent time behind the bars – using bribery and intimidation as his means.
  The US Treasury Department has described him as is the most "powerful drug trafficker in the world" with a supposed net worth of a whopping $1 billion and is said to have sold drugs worth more than $12 billion.
  Here are a few criminal incidents which made 'El Chapo' a feared name
  Bragged about killing '2,000-3,000' people
  In 2014, El Chapo the drug lord is said to have told Mexican officials that he was involved in the killing of at least 2,000 to 3,000 people. In fact, as per US and Mexican authorities, Guzmán was responsible for the deaths of at least 70,000 people who had lost their lives during the controversial war on drugs that took place during the regime of former president Felipe Calderón in Mexico.
  'Peeled off victim's face and stitched it on football'
  In a particularly brutal move, El Chapo would order the beheadings of his rival and would make his men record the videos of the gruesome murder and then upload it on YouTube.
  In 2010, El Chapo was reportedly seen in a video beheading his rival Hugo Hernandez with a chainsaw. More horrifyingly, Hernandez's head was said to have been peeled off after he was killed and stitched on a football.
  Reportedly, a note was left with the ball that read, "Happy New Year, because this will be your last." While the football with his face was left in a plastic bag, the rest of the body parts of the victim were strewn across the street in Sinaloa's Los Mochis in separate bags.
  Went on a rampage after his son's murder
  Guzmán's elder son, 22-year-old Édgar Guzmán López, was allegedly caught in a "war" between El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel and a rival cartel in May 2008 and was killed in a shootout in a parking lot in Culiacán, a city in Mexico.
  After his son's death, Guzmán is believed to have gone on a rampage with the eventual cartel war resulting in the deaths of at least 400 people in the city of Culiacán, which included two dozen law enforcement officials between May and July 2008.
  Interestingly, despite the many macabre crimes he committed in his pursuit to expand his drug trafficking business, El Chapo is said to be regarded as a sort of a Robin Hood-figure in his hometown of the state of Sinaloa, where he grew up in a poor mountain village.