{"id":9458,"date":"2025-07-02T04:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9458"},"modified":"2025-07-02T04:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:01:00","slug":"son-of-el-chapo-to-plead-guilty-in-u-s-drug-trafficking-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=9458","title":{"rendered":"Son of \u2018El Chapo\u2019 to Plead Guilty in U.S. Drug Trafficking Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
This frame grab from video, provided by the Mexican government, shows Ovidio Guzman Lopez being detained in Culiacan, Mexico, Oct. 17, 2019. (CEPROPIE via AP File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d intends to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S., according to court documents filed Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez, along with his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez<\/a><\/span>, ran a faction of the cartel known as the \u201cChapitos,\u201d<\/a><\/span> or little Chapos, that exported fentanyl to the United States.<\/p>\n

Ovidio Guzman Lopez\u2019s father is Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman,<\/a><\/span> the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.<\/p>\n

Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He was charged in federal court in Chicago with money laundering, drug and firearm offenses.<\/p>\n

He previously pleaded not guilty, but online court records indicate he is scheduled to appear in court on July 9 to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors<\/a><\/span>. Court documents filed Tuesday indicate he intends to plead guilty after word of a possible deal was disclosed during an October hearing.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Ovidio Guzman Lopez would be the first of the brothers to enter a plea deal.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Joaquin Guzman Lopez is also in U.S. custody. He and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, were arrested in July in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane. Joaquin Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty<\/a><\/span> to charges including money laundering, drug dealing and conspiracy to distribute drugs. Zambada also pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence<\/a><\/span> in Mexico\u2019s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel<\/a><\/span> clashed.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors and Ovidio Guzman Lopez\u2019s attorney, listed in online court records as Jeffrey Lichtman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

– Christine Fernando and Sophia Tareen, AP News<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
<\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d intends to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S., according to court documents filed Tuesday. Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez, along with his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as the \u201cChapitos,\u201d or little Chapos, that exported fentanyl to the United States.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":9459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/6c6ab9f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1941x1293+0+19\/resize\/980x653!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F5f%2F3a%2F5488c45fc01abf011b9294a1eb57%2F4e8305e3b7334679a5d8295d860a1a4d","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9460,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions\/9460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}