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The son of Mexico’s famous kingpin “El Chapto” pleaded guilty Monday to drug-trafficking charges, months after his brother entered into a bounty deal.
Known in Mexico in Mexico as “Copupitos,” or “Chapoos, Joaquín Guzmmán López and his brother, Ovidio Guzmán López, are accused of using the SINALOA Cartel group. Federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a major attempt to send a “bulk” of Fentanyl to the US
Joaquín Guzmmán López, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continues to acknowledge his role in facilitating the movement of tens of kilos of drugs into the US, mostly through underground tunnels. With a Plea Deal, you will avoid life in prison.
Security was tight in the Chicago Court before the hearing, where the prosecutors made events that corresponded to the most surprising things in Guzmán López with the surprising arrest of another Sinaloa leader during USELY 2024.
Guzmán López, wearing an orange jumpsuit and matching shoes, spoke very little in court. At the beginning of the hearing, US District Judge Sharon Coleman asked him what he did for work.
“Drug trafficking,” he said.
“Oh, that’s your job,” Coleman said. “Anyone.”
If Guzmán López cooperates with the US government, prosecutors say they will reduce the life sentence attached. Even if he faces 10 years in prison, said Andrew Erskine, a lawyer representing the federal government.
Guzmán López would not have had the opportunity to commute the sentence as part of the plea agreement.
His defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, praised both the US and Mexican authorities.
“The government has been very good with Joaquin so far,” he told reporters after the court hearing. “I appreciate the fact that the Mexican government did not interfere.”
Guzmán López and another long-time leader of Sinaloa, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after arriving on a private plane. Both men previously pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges. Their surprise capture led to an outbreak of violence in northern Mexico in Sininaloa as two Sinaloa cartel groups clashed.
As part of the Plea agreement, Joaquín Guzmmán López admitted that he helped oversee the production and trafficking of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl in the United States, which increases the crisis with the magnitude of excess deaths per year.
He agrees to kidnap
Guzmán López also admitted to kidnapping a person who has not been identified as Zambada. Erskine described the alleged kidnapping in court, saying that Guzmán López had the glass in the bottom window removed.
During the meeting in an unoccupied room, Guzmán López is suspected of having others enter through an open window, grab each person, put a bag on his plane and kidnap him on his plane and put him on his plane. On board, he was zip-tied and given sedatives before the plane landed at the New Mexico airport near the border with Texas.
Erskine said the suspect’s kidnapping was part of an effort to show cooperation with the US government, which did not threaten. He said Guzmán López would not have received credit for cooperating with the incident.
Zambada’s lawyer has previously said that his client was “forcibly kidnapped” by Guzmán López on a flight to the US
Lichtman said he will try to seek a lower sentence.
“I don’t know how this ends,” Lichtman said. “If he gets a 10-year sentence, that’s a lot of time for anyone to spend in prison.”
At the court, onlookers were ordered to turn off electronic devices while authorities used police dogs to seize bags and equipment from the court’s cleaning area in the city.
In July, Ovidio Guzmán López became the first son of the drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” guzmán “to enter a Plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges involved in his leadership role in his box. Legal experts called Plea faced an important step in the US government’s investigation and prosecutors of the SINALOA Cartel Leaders.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is serving a life sentence after being found guilty in 2019 for his role as the former leader of cocaine and other drugs in the United States. The brothers are said to have taken over their father’s former role as leaders of the Cartel.
