US demands El Chapo forfeit $12.7b in drug money

Prosecutors on Friday said they were seeking $12.7 billion from convicted Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, based on a conservative estimate of revenues from his cartel's drug sales in the United States. According to a motion filed by US Attorney Richard Donoghue, authorities are "entitled to forfeiture of all property that constitutes or is derived from the defendant's narcotics-related crimes." Based on prices for drugs quoted by various witnesses, Guzman's 25-year reign atop the Sinaloa cartel netted sales of some $11.8 billion in cocaine, $846 million in marijuana and $11 million in heroin, authorities said. Guzman's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told US media that the demand is "largely an academic exercise as the government has never located or identified even a penny of this $12.7 billion in proceeds supposedly generated by Mr. Guzman." Guzman is set to be sentenced on July 17, and is expected to be ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison.