CHICAGO — A U.S. judge has sentenced a reputed lieutenant of captured Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman to 22 years in prison for his role in a $1 billion conspiracy to traffic narcotics to Chicago and other cities.
Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez was sentenced Monday in U.S. District in Chicago. The 59-year-old is one of 11 alleged traffickers indicted in Chicago, including Guzman himself. Hernandez was the first to be sentenced.
The case is regarded as one of the U.S. government’s most important against Mexican cartels. Guzman remains jailed in Mexico, and Mexican authorities haven’t said if they will extradite him to Chicago.
Prosecutors say Hernandez employed logistical skills to ship tons of heroin and cocaine by train from Mexico to Chicago concealed amid furniture.
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