Convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera is seeking a new trial in the United States, while two of his sons are negotiating for a plea deal with the U.S. government.
Guzmán Loera’s request for a retrial came to light on Monday, while a lawyer for Ovidio Guzmán López and Joaquín Guzmán López confirmed that the brothers are in talks for a possible plea bargain with the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago.
El Chapo, a co-founder and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was found guilty of drug trafficking in a U.S. federal court in Brooklyn, New York, in February 2019. He was sentenced to life in prison in July 2019, and subsequently transferred to the Florence Supermax prison in Colorado.
Ovidio Guzmán, one of the alleged leaders of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, was extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges in September 2023, eight months after his capture in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
Joaquín Guzmán, another alleged leader of the “Los Chapitos” who also faces trafficking charges in the United States, was arrested in the U.S. in late July after he flew into the country on a private plane in the company of accused Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
El Chapo cites ‘illegal’ extradition and ‘ineffective’ representation in request for a new trial
Guzmán Loera submitted a handwritten motion to U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in which he asked for a new trial, a request that appears unlikely to be granted.
In a submission completed in September, El Chapo said that his extradition from Mexico to the Eastern District of New York in 2017 was “illegal” as he should have been sent to a judicial district in Texas or California.
He also said that the “assistance” of his legal counsel at his 2018-19 trial was “ineffective.”
El Chapo accused his lawyers of failing to adequately cross-examine witnesses and failing to object to certain evidence he considered inadmissible.
NEW: Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán just submitted a handwritten letter to ask Judge Cogan for a new trial alleging he had a bad defense team. pic.twitter.com/UI6vuyAmmI
— Luis Chaparro (@LuisKuryaki) October 21, 2024
Guzmán Loera didn’t cite new evidence as a basis for his request for a new trial, and acknowledged that he had previously submitted a motion to ask for a retrial.
One of the lawyers who represented El Chapo in what was described in some quarters as the “trial of the century” was Jeffrey Lichtman, who is now representing Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López.
Lichtman: ‘Plea negotiations are going on’
In a hearing in federal court in Chicago on Monday, Lichtman said that the two Guzmán López brothers are negotiating with the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago for a possible plea deal.
“Today we simply discussed the status of the case, we disclosed that plea negotiations are going on, which isn’t all that shocking because plea negotiations go on in every case, including many that eventually end up in trial,” the lawyer said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.
“There are a myriad of possibilities in a situation like this,” Lichtman told reporters in separate remarks.
“… Although I represent both brothers it doesn’t change the fact they individually have their own cases,” he said.
“So this isn’t a package deal. … I’d like them to do the same thing, have the same result, but the government views them differently,” Lichtman said.
The newspaper Milenio first reported in August that Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán were negotiating a deal with U.S. authorities under which they would plead guilty to some of the crimes they are accused of in exchange for more lenient sentences.
However, as Lichtman indicated, there is no certainty that a deal will be reached.
The United States government prosecutor told Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Monday that the talks between the two sides are preliminary and that he hoped to have more information about a possible plea deal at a hearing early next year.
Ovidio, who was in court in Chicago on Monday, and Joaquín have been summoned to appear in court together on Jan. 7. However, it has not been established that the two brothers will be prosecuted together.
Both Ovidio, 34, and Joaquín, 38, are accused of drug trafficking as well as financial crimes and weapons violations. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges they face, although that could change if they reach a plea bargain.
Zambada has accused Joaquín Guzmán of kidnapping him in Culiacán and forcing him onto a plane that delivered him to U.S. law enforcement authorities on July 25. Mexico’s Federal Attorney General’s Office agrees with that version of events.
Joaquín Guzmán’s alleged kidnapping of El Mayo — long one of Mexico’s most wanted drug lords — and his delivery to U.S. authorities appears to have been a ploy to obtain more favorable outcomes for himself and his brother.
However, Lichtman has stressed that Joaquín did not reach any prior agreement with the U.S. government.
On Monday, the lawyer “did not say whether … [the Guzmán López brothers] may, or may not, cooperate in the government’s case against El Mayo,” The Guardian reported.
At a hearing in Zambada’s case last week, it was revealed that U.S. prosecutors were considering seeking the death penalty for the 76-year-old accused trafficker.
The next hearing in Zambada’s case is scheduled for Jan. 15. Like his Sinaloa Cartel co-founder El Chapo, El Mayo case is facing U.S. justice in the Eastern District of New York.
With reports from Reforma, El Universal, El Economista, ABC7, EFE and The Guardian
