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HOUSTON (AP) -- Court documents show an extradited Mexican drug kingpin whose case has been shrouded in secrecy has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, once the head of the Gulf Cartel, was sentenced Wednesday in Houston federal court during a closed hearing.

He pleaded guilty to five counts, including drug charges. In exchange, prosecutors dropped 12 other counts he faced.

Cardenas-Guillen was one of four drug kingpins and about a dozen lesser cartel soldiers who were extradited in 2007 to the United States by Mexican authorities.

U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle denied a request by the media to open Wednesday's hearing, saying doing so would have possibly placed the drug kingpin in danger.

Cardenas-Guillen's trial was set for last year but it was inexplicably canceled.

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