Ovidio Guzmán López, an accused Sinaloa Cartel leader and one of the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, intends to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the United States in July, according to U.S. District Court papers.
Guzmán López — one of “Los Chapitos,” as El Chapo’s four sons are known — was extradited to the United States in September 2023, eight months after he was captured in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
According to a document of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that was filed on Tuesday, the 35-year-old defendant is scheduled to attend a plea hearing on July 9.
“Government shall provide the court with a courtesy copy of the plea agreement at least three days prior to the plea,” the document says.
Jeffrey Lichtman, lawyer for Guzmán López, said that his client and the U.S. government have not yet reached a final plea deal.
“We have no completed agreement yet but hope to in the future,” he told Reuters.
The court document indicates that a plea deal will be reached sometime in the next two months.
If Guzmán López pleads guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and other charges on July 9, as expected, he will become the first of the Chapitos to admit guilt in the United States. His brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, is also in U.S. custody, following his arrest in New Mexico last July after he arrived on a private plane in the company of accused Sinaloa Cartel founder and leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
El Chapo was convicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States in 2019, and is serving a sentence of life imprisonment in the Florence “Supermax” facility in Colorado.
Los Chapitos inherited part of the lucrative drug empire built over decades by Guzmán Loera, Zambada and others.
Guzmán López initially pleaded not guilty
After his extradition to the United States in September 2023, Guzmán López, nicknamed “El Ratón” (The Mouse), pleaded not guilty in federal court in Chicago.
There was speculation last year that he had entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program, but that was not confirmed.
Lichtman said last October that both Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán López were negotiating with the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago for a possible plea deal.
U.S. authorities accuse Guzmán López and his brothers — Joaquín, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar — of running a large-scale drug trafficking operation that “allegedly reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profits by flooding the United States with fentanyl.”
The two Guzmán Salazar brothers are both wanted in the United States, where authorities are offering separate rewards up to US $10 million for information that leads to their capture.
The “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel is engaged in a long-running conflict with the “Los Mayos” faction of the powerful criminal organization. The feud intensified last year after Joaquín Guzmán López allegedly kidnapped “El Mayo” Zambada and forced him onto a U.S.-bound plane.
Nearly 6 years have passed since the ‘Battle of Culiacán’
Ovidio Guzmán López shot to international infamy in October 2019 when his arrest in Culiacán triggered a wave of cartel attacks that terrorized residents of the northern city.
Not long after his arrest, federal security force released Guzmán López “to try to avoid more violence … and preserve the lives of our personnel and recover calm in the city,” then security minister Alfonso Durazo said at the time.
“In the hours following the arrest, Sinaloa Cartel gunmen took control of Culiacán in a terrifying show of strength,” Mexico News Daily reported on Oct. 18, 2019, the day after the so-called “Battle of Culiacán,” or “Culiacanazo.”
“Scores of videos posted to social media showed citizens running for cover or trying to hide amid bursts of gunfire. Photographs showed black plumes of smoke rising above the city,” MND said.
Violent chaos also followed Guzmán López’s second and final capture in January 2023, with both soldiers and alleged criminals losing their lives in armed combat in the Sinaloa state capital.
With reports from Reuters, The New York Times and Reforma
