On Tuesday, Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, more commonly referred to as "El Chapo", was found guilty of 10 various drug trafficking-related charges at a US District Court in Brooklyn.
Guzmán will be returning to court to be sentenced on June 25, but US Attorney Richard Donoghue has already told reporters that El Chapo will have "no escape" from his conviction: "It is a sentence from which there is no escape and there is no return".
El Chapo not only became infamous across the world for leading the world's largest drug trafficking network - the Sinaloa cartel of northern Mexico - but also for his ability to escape any prison he's been inside. In 2001, Guzmán was able to escape a maximum-security prison in the Mexican state of Jalisco, in a carefully orchestrated jailbreak that allegedly cost Guzmán $2.5 million.
In 2015, El Chapo escaped from yet another maximum-security facility in Mexico, known as the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1. The kingpin was able to escape through a long tunnel that had been dug beneath the prisoner showers, and he even had his motorcycle waiting for him for a speedy escape.
But following his extradition in 2017, Guzmán will be sent to a jail on US soil, where he is expected to spend the rest of his life. As of this writing, it is believed the Cartel leader will see out his final years in the Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado (ADX Florence), which is also referred to as "the Alcatraz of the Rockies".
Referred to as "Hell in a very small place", the only way to really know how bad life is like on the inside is to hear about it through the words of a former inmate. Check out the video below to see rare footage of inside the "supermax" prison, and to hear what it's like to serve time there from former inmate Raymond "Ray" Luc Levasseur:
ADX Florence is the only "supermax" prison in the US, and is currently home to some of the most dangerous criminals to ever pass through the justice system - including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.
Speaking to FOX News, Levasseur spoke candidly about the five years he spent inside the ADX Florence: "It's a traumatic experience. [...] It produces this nightmarish mindset, that I think has a tendency to get more into the paranoic and the violent."
Prisoners spend 23 hours a day inside their cells, which are known as "control units", specifically designed to deprive the inmates of any contact with the outside world. El Chapo will be unable to communicate with anybody once locked inside his cell - including the 402 other male inmates.
Speaking to Reuters on the grounds of anonymity, one former inmate stated: "Those guys at Guantanamo had it much better than we did". In fact, several inmates over the years have tried to sue ADX over the "inhumane" conditions.
Related: Footage shows 'El Chapo' wiping away tears after being extradited to the US:
Many inmates have attempted to commit suicide after being imprisoned at ADX Florence, with at least nine of those being successful.
With Guzmán's sentence hearing on June 25, it is inevitable that the world's most dangerous living druglord will be sent to ADX Florence, and this time, the chances of escape have never been smaller.
