By Sophia TarEEN and Christine Fernando
Chicago (AP) According to court filings on Tuesday, the son of infamous Mexican drug lord El Chapo plans to enter a guilty plea to drug trafficking charges in the United States.
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Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, are accused by the prosecution of leading a branch of the cartel known as the Chapidos, or little Chapos, that shipped fentanyl to the US.
Guzman, Ovidio Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, Lopez’s father, was the former head of the Sinaloa cartel, which for 25 years transported mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States.
After being detained in Mexico in 2023, Ovidio Guzman Lopez was extradited to the US. He was accused with money laundering, narcotics charges, and firearm offenses in a federal court in Chicago.
He entered a not guilty plea earlier, but according to online court records, he is expected to appear in court on July 9 to modify his plea as part of an agreement with the prosecution. He plans to enter a guilty plea, according to court documents filed Tuesday, following the disclosure of a potential agreement during an October hearing.
The first of the brothers to enter a plea agreement would be Ovidio Guzman Lopez.
The United States is also holding Joaquin Guzman Lopez. After arriving in the United States on a private plane, he and Ismael El Mayo Zambada, another veteran Sinaloa commander, were captured in Texas in July. In response to accusations of drug dealing, money laundering, and conspiracy to distribute drugs, Joaquin Guzman Lopez entered a not guilty plea. Zambada entered a not guilty plea as well.
Two sections of the Sinaloa cartel clashed after the men’s dramatic capture, which led to a spike in violence in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Requests for comment were not immediately answered by federal prosecutors or the lawyer for Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who is identified as Jeffrey Lichtman in online court records.
