{"id":606687,"date":"2025-12-02T04:54:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/606687\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T04:54:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T04:54:19","slug":"son-of-drug-lord-el-chapo-pleads-guilty-in-us-drug-trafficking-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/606687\/","title":{"rendered":"Son of drug lord \u2018El Chapo\u2019 pleads guilty in US drug trafficking case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joaqu\u00edn pleaded guilty after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms of drugs to the US\"Joaqu\u00ednOne of the sons of notorious Mexican drug lord ‘El Chapo’ has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges.(Image: U.S Department Of State)<\/p>\n

One of the sons of notorious Mexican drug lord ‘El Chapo’ has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges. Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez pleaded guilty on Monday to US drug trafficking charges, according to Associated Press.<\/p>\n

His plea comes months after his brother entered a plea deal. Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez and brother Ovidio Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez<\/a>, known in Mexico as the ‘little Chapos’ are accused of running a section of the Sinaloa cartel. In 2023 the operation was labelled by federal authorities as a massive effort to send \u201cstaggering\u201d quantities of fentanyl into the US.<\/p>\n

Joaqu\u00edn, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms of drugs <\/a>to the US, mostly through underground tunnels. His attorney said that he is expected to avoid life in prison with the plea deal.<\/p>\n

Joaqu\u00edn, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms of drugs to the US<\/p>\n

There was a large security presence at Chicago\u2019s federal court ahead of the hearing in which prosecutors detailed events leading up to Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez\u2019s dramatic arrest with another longtime Sinaloa leader<\/a> on US soil in July 2024.<\/p>\n

Dressed in an orange jumpsuit Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez did not say much in the court on Monday but when asked at the beginning of the hearing what he did for work he responded to District Judge Sharon Coleman, “drug trafficking”.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh that\u2019s your job,\u201d Coleman said with a chuckle. \u201cThere you go.\u201d Prosecutors said that if Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez cooperates with the US government his life sentence would be reduced however he will still face at least 10 years in prison said Andrew Erskine, an attorney representing the federal government.<\/p>\n

Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez will not have the opportunity to appeal the sentence as part of the plea deal. His defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said: \u201cThe government has been very fair with Joaqu\u00edn thus far. I do appreciate the fact that the Mexican government didn\u2019t interfere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez was arrested in July 2024 in Texas with another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada after they landed in the US on a private plane. Both men have previously pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges.<\/p>\n

Their shocking arrest created a surge in violence in Mexico\u2019s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed. As part of the plea deal, Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez 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.<\/p>\n

In the deal Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez also admitted to kidnapping an unnamed individual alleged to be Zambada. Erskine described the supposed kidnapping in court, saying Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez had the glass from a floor-to-ceiling window removed.<\/p>\n

Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez allegedly had others enter through the open window during a meeting in the room with the unnamed person where they were seized with a bag put over his head and put on a plane. On board, he was zip tied and given sedatives before the plane landed at a New Mexico airport near the border with Texas, report AP.<\/p>\n

Erskine argued that the alleged kidnapping was an attempt to show cooperation with the US government, which did not sanction those actions. He said Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez would not receive cooperation credit because of that.<\/p>\n

Zambada\u2019s attorney has previously claimed that his client was \u201cforcibly kidnapped\u201d by Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez onto the flight to the US and Lichtman said he would try to seek a lower sentence.<\/p>\n

Police dogs<\/a> were in the lobby of the downtown courthouse sniffing bags and equipment. In July, Joaquin’s brother Ovidio Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez became the first son of the drug kingpin to enter a plea deal.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. This plea deal was seen as a significant step for the US government in their investigation and prosecution of Sinaloa cartel leaders according to Legal experts.<\/p>\n

Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having been responsible for smuggling huge amounts of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. The brothers allegedly took over their father\u2019s former role as leaders of the cartel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joaqu\u00edn pleaded guilty after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[44394,188,2210,14618,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-606687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-cocaine","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-life-sentence","11":"tag-prisons","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115648192353484911","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}