Osiel Cárdenas Guillen was ordered to forfeit $50 million, a small slice of his estimated earnings.Cárdenas, 42, a native of the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, moved tons of cocaine and made millions as he ruled the Gulf cartel drug empire with a viciousness seldom before seen, authorities said."Osiel Cárdenas Guillen headed one of the most prolific and certainly most violent drug trafficking organizations that Mexico has ever spawned," said Mike Vigil, a retired agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.The drug lord has not been seen publicly since he was ushered in shackles into a Houston courtroom in 2007 when he arrived in Texas.Despite a protest from the Houston Chronicle that the public had a right to be present for the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle kept the hearing closed. Much of the prosecution has been handled via closed hearings and sealed documents.
"We strongly believe that the American justice system should operate in the light of day and not in secret," said Jeff Cohen, editor of the Chronicle.What little is known about the proceeding came from an e-mailed U.S. Justice Department news release that said Cárdenas pleaded guilty to threatening to kill two U.S. federal agents who were caught driving through his turf in 1999, as well as a Cameron County sheriff's deputy working undercover in Texas.Cárdenas also pleaded guilty to drug smuggling and money laundering.
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