Son of `El Chapo’ pleads guilty in U.S. drug case, promising cooperation for lighter sentence

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)

CHICAGO — A son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” pleaded guilty Friday to U.S. drug trafficking charges, becoming the first of the drug lord’s sons to enter a plea deal.

Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. They became known locally as the “Chapitos,” or “little Chapos,” and federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send “staggering” quantities of fentanyl into the U.S.

As part of a plea agreement, Ovidio Guzman Lopez admitted to helping oversee the production and smuggling of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the United States, fueling a crisis that has contributed to tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually.

Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. Terms of the deal, including sentencing recommendations or cooperation agreements, were not immediately disclosed.

Speculation about a deal had percolated for months, as behind-the-scenes negotiations quietly progressed.

Jeffrey Lichtman, an attorney for the two brothers, said Friday he would wait until Ovidio Guzman Lopez was sentenced before discussing whether the agreement was a good deal.

Guzman Lopez’s sentencing was postponed while he cooperates with U.S. authorities, as he agreed to do so on Friday. Whether he avoids a life in prison sentence depends on whether authorities say he has held up his end of the agreement.

Lichtman said he didn’t know whether the case against Joaquin Guzman Lopez could be resolved with a plea deal, noting that it is “completely different.”

“Remember, Joaquin was arrested in America well after Ovidio was, so it takes time,” he said.

Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School and former assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said that Guzman Lopez, by pleading guilty, may have “saved other family members.”

“In this way, he has some control over who he’s cooperating against and what the world will know about that cooperation.”

Levenson called the plea change a “big step” for the U.S. government and said Guzman Lopez could provide “a roadmap of how to identify members of the cartel.”

“This is big,” she said. “The best way for them to take out the cartel is to find out about its operations from an insider, and that’s what they get from his cooperation.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday criticized the “lack of coherence” in American policy toward Mexican cartels, highlighting the disparity between the U.S. government declaring cartels foreign terrorist organizations, but also striking plea deals with their leaders.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. The brothers allegedly assumed their father’s former role as leaders of the cartel.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He initially pleaded not guilty but had signaled in recent months his intent to change his plea.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane. Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges. Their dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.

By Christine Fernando.

Associated Press writer Megan Janetsky contributed from Mexico City.