Two of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera’s sons have confirmed they are in the process of negotiating a plea deal with the US government, a lawyer for the pair confirmed during a court hearing in Chicago on Monday.
The hearing confirmed a report in August by the Mexican news organization Milenio that Ovidio Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán López negotiated a deal for a lighter sentence and to become cooperating witnesses for the US government.
During Monday’s hearing for Ovidio Guzmán, the federal judge also allowed him and his brother to be represented by the same attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, who represented El Chapo during his sensational federal trial in 2019.
A number of cooperating witnesses with the US government testified against El Chapo during his trial. On Monday, El Chapo submitted a letter to the federal court in Brooklyn where his trial was held, requesting a new trial, citing “ineffective” representation and “illegal” extradition to New York.
Ovidio Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán López, along with their two other brothers who are still at large in Mexico, were the leaders of “Los Chapitos”, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, one of the largest organized crime groups in Mexico .
For years, their father, El Chapo, was one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel. El Chapo’s sons are charged in the Northern District of Illinois with multiple felonies, including conspiracy to carry on a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and others.
Ovidio Guzmán was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and later extradited to the United States. Joaquín Guzmán López was arrested in July of this year along with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the longtime, secretive and elusive leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
El Mayo later accused Joaquín Guzmán López of kidnapping him in Mexico and then flying him into US territory to hand him over to US officials. The Mexican Attorney General has launched an investigation into the events that led to El Mayo’s kidnapping and arrest. El Mayo claimed in a letter that he was forcibly overpowered by Joaquín Guzmán López’s men after being tricked into coming to a meeting with the governor and another politician in the Mexican city of Culiacán.
Last week, a hearing for El Mayo’s case in federal court in Brooklyn clarified that US officials were still considering whether to pursue the death penalty against El Mayo. His next hearing is set for January 15, 2025.
Since El Chapo’s trial in 2019, tensions between the two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, Los Chapitos and El Mayo’s group, have continued to rise after one of El Mayo’s sons testified against El Chapo. Since Joaquín Guzmán López’s kidnapping of El Mayo, the two factions have been engaged in an all-out war in Mexico, with each group seeking to decimate the other for drug-trafficking routes and full control of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Sinaloa cartel has long been Mexico’s largest organized crime group, dominating the drug trade, engaging in battles with rival groups and corrupting politicians.
Last Wednesday, Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former security minister and the architect of Mexico’s “war on drugs,” was sentenced to 38 years in prison for working with the Sinaloa cartel.
During his tenure, García Luna controlled Mexico’s federal police and established a close relationship with the United States government, working with the CIA, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Cooperating witnesses testified at García Luna’s 2023 trial that during his tenure, Sinaloa cartel leaders paid him millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for protection of their drug trade.
Ovidio Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán López’s next hearing is set for January 7, 2025, when it may be confirmed whether they will sign a plea agreement to become cooperating witnesses for the US government. Their attorney did not say whether or not they may cooperate in the government’s case against El Mayo.