"I tell you — and I tell you on behalf of all Chicagoans … we are tired, tired of drug trafficking, and it continues to hurt this city and this country," U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo said in imposing the sentence.  FILE - This Feb. 22, 2014 file photo shows Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, being escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture overnight in the beach resort... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Feb. 22, 2014 file photo shows Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, being escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City following his capture overnight in the beach resort... (Associated Press) 
 
 CHICAGO (AP) — A U.S. judge sentenced a reputed lieutenant of captured Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to 22 years in prison Monday for his role in a $1 billion trafficking conspiracy, saying the stiff sentence should send a message to traffickers everywhere. Vasquez-Hernandez, charged with Guzman in what has been called the most significant drug prosecution in Chicago history, pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics for a single 276-kilogram shipment of cocaine from Mexico to Chicago by train. His family portrayed the slight man with salt-and-pepper hair as a skilled auto-body worker who taught his six sons the value of hard work. Early at Monday's hearing, Castillo repeatedly asked the question: "Who is this defendant?" Defense attorney Paul Brayman had asked that Castillo impose no more than the mandatory minimum 10-year sentence, saying "anything more ... is a death sentence" for his client. "I ask you for forgiveness and for you to have pity on me," he told the judge. "I'm not going to sit here ... and think for one second this was the first time you happened to do this," he said. "I love you dad," his oldest son, Gabriel Vazquez, 43, called from the courtroom gallery as his father was led away after the sentence was imposed. The son later told reporters outside court that he thought the sentence was "harsh...for a man of my dad's caliber." "He's not the monster that everyone says he is," an emotional Vasquez said. ___ 
 
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– A man prosecutors say was a top member of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel was sentenced to 22 years yesterday after what the Chicago Tribune reports has been called the most significant drug prosecution in the city's history. Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez, allegedly the cartel's logistics chief and a lieutenant of captured drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pleaded guilty earlier this year to involvement in a $1 billion plot to smuggle 600 pounds of cocaine from Mexico to Chicago by train. "I tell you and I tell you on behalf of all Chicagoans … we are tired, tired of drug trafficking, and it continues to hurt this city and this country," a federal judge said as he handed down the sentence. The 59-year-old's lawyer, however, argued that his client was merely a body shop worker who got caught up in a single drug deal, adding that two cartel members who became DEA informants had exaggerated his role in the deal, the AP reports.