{"id":44262,"date":"2025-07-02T04:23:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44262"},"modified":"2025-07-02T04:23:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:23:42","slug":"son-of-el-chapo-to-plead-guilty-in-u-s-drug-trafficking-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44262","title":{"rendered":"Son of &#8216;El Chapo&#8217; to plead guilty in U.S. drug trafficking case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">CHICAGO \u2014 The son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; intends to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S., according to court documents filed Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Prosecutors allege<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/north-america\/us-prosecutors-wont-seek-death-penalty-son-el-chapo-cartel-leader-rcna209383\">\u2002Ovidio Guzman Lopez<\/a>, along with his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as the &#8220;Chapitos,&#8221; or little Chapos, that exported fentanyl to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ovidio Guzman Lopez&#8217;s father is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/crime-courts\/joaqu-n-el-chapo-guzm-n-be-sentenced-wednesday-may-n1030591\">Joaquin &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzman<\/a>, the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">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\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">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. 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<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Ovidio Guzman Lopez would be the first of the brothers to enter a plea deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Joaquin Guzman Lopez is also in U.S. custody. He and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael &#8220;El Mayo&#8221; 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 to charges including money laundering, drug dealing and conspiracy to distribute drugs. Zambada also pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The men&#8217;s dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico&#8217;s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Federal prosecutors and Ovidio Guzman Lopez&#8217;s attorney, listed in online court records as Jeffrey Lichtman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/son-el-chapo-plead-guilty-us-drug-trafficking-case-rcna216378\">Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO \u2014 The son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; intends to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the U.S., according to court documents filed Tuesday. Prosecutors allege\u2002Ovidio Guzman Lopez, along with his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as the &#8220;Chapitos,&#8221; or little Chapos, that exported fentanyl [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[33823,33822,6273,2500],"class_list":["post-44262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-shorty","tag-drug-lord","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44264,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44262\/revisions\/44264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}