El Chapo smuggled over 300,000 pounds of cocaine into the US, enough to provide one line to every citizen
The trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán is now underway in Brooklyn, New York, with prosecutors detailing the extent of the 61-year-old's crimes to the court, including how he smuggled enough cocaine across the border to "give more than a line" for each of the country's 320 million-odd residents.
There were a fair few obstacles that had to be circumvented for the trial to even begin, including problems in the jury selection process after several potential candidates had to be dismissed by a US District Judge Brian Cogan when they expressed fear for their lives if selected.
But with the hearing now underway, prosecutors laid out the extent of the Sinaloa Cartel supremo's crimes and how the drug cartel had trafficked an estimated $14 billion in drugs into the US over the past 25 years. They alleged that 340,982 pounds of cocaine had made its way into the United States between 1989 to 2014, with federal authorities seizing enough of the drug to offer a line to every single one of the country's residents.
