Ovidio Guzmán, son of 'Chapo,' pleads guilty to drug trafficking

Ovidio Guzmán López, son of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and a successor leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded guilty Friday to drug trafficking charges in a U.S. court.

Guzmán López, who was detained without bail following his 2023 extradition from Mexico to the United States, formally entered his guilty plea during a federal court hearing in Chicago, the Justice Department announced.

Prosecutors stated that “Guzmán López, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking conspiracy and two counts of knowingly participating in a continuing criminal enterprise.”

Known as “El Ratón,” he signed a plea agreement on June 30, agreeing to plead guilty to avoid a jury trial and the possibility of a harsher sentence if convicted.

Federal Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman did not set a sentencing date. However, the plea deal is expected to result in a significantly shorter prison sentence than the life term handed down to his father, "El Chapo," following his high-profile trial in 2018.

U.S. authorities accuse Ovidio Guzmán, his father Joaquín, and his half-brothers Archivaldo Iván and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar of leading Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel that the Trump administration designated as a global terrorist organization.

An "important step"

"This guilty plea is another important step in holding the Sinaloa Cartel and its leaders accountable for their role in fueling the fentanyl epidemic that has affected so many Americans," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.

The Justice Department stated that Ovidio Guzmán acknowledged that he and his three brothers assumed leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel after their father’s arrest in 2016 and subsequent sentencing in 2019.

In the plea agreement, he "admitted that he coordinated the transportation of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other drugs and precursor chemicals from Mexico to the border, sometimes in shipments of hundreds or thousands of kilograms," the prosecution said.

He further said he "used vehicles, rail cars, tunnels, airplanes and other means" to traffic the drugs, and laundered the illicit proceeds through "bank transfers, commodities trading and cryptocurrencies."

He also acknowledged that "he and his cartel associates perpetrated acts of violence against law enforcement, civilians and rival drug traffickers."

Mike Vigil, former chief of operations for the DEA, told AFP that the plea deal could provide U.S. authorities with “valuable information” about how the cartel obtains precursor chemicals and which businessmen and politicians offer it protection.

Cartel war

This marks the first time one of "El Chapo’s" sons has signed a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors.

The next to face charges may be Joaquín Guzmán, who has been detained without bail in Chicago since July 2024, after arriving at a Texas airfield alongside Ismael "Mayo" Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside his father.

Zambada claimed he was kidnapped by his godson in exchange for benefits from the U.S. justice system. According to Vigil, seventeen of Ovidio Guzmán’s family members entered the U.S. as part of the agreement.

Ovidio Guzmán gained notoriety after his arrest in Mexico in October 2019 and subsequent release by then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during a violent criminal uprising known as the “Culiacanazo.”

The former president defended the decision, arguing that it prevented a bloodbath, as military forces had been nearly surrounded by heavily armed hired gunmen. In January 2023, while López Obrador was still in office, Ovidio Guzmán was captured again and subsequently extradited to the U.S.