Notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is likely to die in jail, after being sentenced to life for smuggling illegal drugs into the US over a violent decades-long career.

Jurors found the 62-year-old guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and the use of firearms in February after an 11-week trial.

Speaking to the court before his sentencing, he said his confinement in the US had been "psychological, emotional, mental torture 24 hours a day".

He also claimed he had been denied a fair trial and that his case was "stained" by juror misconduct.

Judge Brian Cogan sentenced him to life plus 30 years, which was mandatory under the law, at a hearing in Brooklyn, New York.

During the trial, prosecutors gave evidence that provided an extraordinary glimpse into the brutal and lucrative world of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and how El Chapo became its mastermind, trafficking thousands of kilos of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine.

"The overwhelming evidence at trial showed that the defendant was a ruthless and bloodthirsty leader," prosecutors said.

"A life sentence is just punishment for this defendant."

El Chapo's lawyers spent just 30 minutes presenting their client's defence, and argued that he was simply a scapegoat acting on someone else's orders.

But the jury convicted him on all 10 of the counts he faced after hearing testimonies from more than 50 witnesses.

Before his recapture in 2016, Guzman twice escaped from high-security prisons, including using a specially constructed one-mile tunnel leading from his cell.

The US government said he blew his covert through a number of slip-ups, including trying to make a movie about his life.

Guzman is now set to be locked up in a so-called 'supermax' jail in the state of Colorado, where inmates' view of the world is a four-inch cell window.

His lawyers have said they intend to appeal against the guilty verdict.