Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pleaded guilty Friday to federal drug charges in a Chicago courtroom. This marks the first of El Chapo’s sons entering a plea deal with U.S. authorities.
The plea was part of a multi-district agreement that resolves charges brought by grand juries in both the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of New York. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman did not set a sentencing date, and Guzmán López remains detained without bond following his extradition from Mexico in 2023.
Prosecutors allege that Ovidio Guzmán López and his brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, led a powerful faction of the Sinaloa cartel, known as the “Chapitos,” or “little Chapos.”
Federal authorities in 2023 described their operation as a massive effort to send “staggering” quantities of fentanyl into the United States. As part of his plea agreement, Ovidio Guzmán López admitted to overseeing the production and smuggling of large amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, and fentanyl into the United States.
The attorney’s office stated that Guzmán López coordinated the transportation of such drugs from Mexico to the U.S. border, sometimes in shipments of hundreds or thousands of kilograms.
He used a network of couriers affiliated with the cartel to smuggle drugs into the United States using vehicles, rail cars, tunnels, aircraft, and other methods. After the drugs were distributed throughout the United States, workers for Guzmán López transported large quantities of cash, wire transfers, trade of goods, and cryptocurrency to launder the profits and ensure the money was sent to Guzmán López and other cartel members in Mexico. Guzmán López also admitted that he and his cartel associates used violence against law enforcement, civilians, and rival traffickers to protect the cartel’s drug trafficking activities.
As part of his plea agreement, Guzmán López agreed to an $80 million forfeiture money judgment. The terms of the plea deal, including sentencing recommendations or cooperation agreements, were not immediately disclosed.
His sentencing was postponed while he cooperates with U.S. authorities, and whether he avoids a life sentence depends on whether authorities say he has held up his end of the agreement.
Jeffrey Lichtman, attorney for the two brothers, said he would wait until Ovidio Guzmán López was sentenced before discussing whether the agreement was a good deal.
Lichtman also noted that the case against Joaquín Guzmán López could be “completely different” and that “it takes time.”
Laurie Levenson, a law professor and former federal prosecutor, said Guzmán López’s plea may have “saved other family members” and gives him “some control over who he’s cooperating against and what the world will know about that cooperation.”
She called the plea a “big step” for the U.S. government and said Guzmán López could provide “a roadmap of how to identify members of the cartel.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum criticized the “lack of coherence” in U.S. policy toward Mexican cartels, highlighting the difference in treatment between declaring cartels foreign terrorist organizations and striking plea deals with their leaders.
The guilty plea was announced as part of Operation Take Back America, a Justice Department initiative to eliminate cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the Sinaloa cartel’s leader. Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States, initially pleading not guilty but later signaling his intent to change his plea.
Joaquín Guzmán López and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after arriving in the United States on a private plane. Both have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, and their capture sparked violence in Mexico’s northern Sinaloa state as cartel factions clashed.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois stated that Guzmán López’s brothers, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, are also charged with drug trafficking but are not in custody, with warrants issued for their arrests. The U.S. State Department has offered rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to their arrests and convictions. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
