Billions of dollars earned by the world’s most notorious drug lord should be seized to pay for President Trump’s border wall, according to Republican senator Ted Cruz.
He wants the $14 billion pocketed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman while heading the murderous Sinaloa cartel to fund the controversial project.
Mr Cruz tweeted: “America’s justice system prevailed today in convicting Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka El Chapo, on all 10 counts.
“US prosecutors are seeking $14 billion in drug profits & other assets from El Chapo which should go towards funding our wall to #SecureTheBorder.”
Mr Cruz urged his Senate colleagues to pass the “EL CHAPO Act”, an acronym for Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order.
It is more than twice the $5.7 billion President Trump is trying to wrestle from Congress to fund his wall.
Guzman, 61, was extradited to America two years ago but his illicit fortune accrued over decades has apparently proved tricky to trace.
He is due to be sentenced in June. Authorities have not confirmed where El Chapo will be jailed, although one US attorney possibly gave a hint when he said he is facing “a sentence from which there is no escape and no return”.
Experts suggest he is likely to be sent to the remote federal “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado, known as ADX for “administrative maximum” following two earlier successful jail escapes.
The “Alcatraz of the Rockies” houses the nation’s most violent offenders, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols.
Many of its 400 inmates are alone for 23-hours-a-day in 7ft by 12ft cells with a bed, stool and table made from poured concrete to prevent escape.
Guzman orchestrated a dramatic escape in 2015 from Mexico’s maximum-security Altiplano prison, where he communicated with accomplices for weeks by mobile phone, slipped into an escape hatch beneath his shower, hopped on the back of a waiting motorcycle and sped through a mile-long, hand-dug tunnel to freedom.
It was his second prison break after being smuggled out of another Mexican jail in 2001 in a laundry basket.
A political row over border security led to a 35-day partial US government shutdown. Republican and Democrat lawmakers have reached an agreement to avert a second shutdown that would provide $1.4bn for the new wall. The president said he is “extremely unhappy” with the deal but has yet to say whether or not he will sign it off.
