El Chapo’s son Ovidio Guzman Lopez pleads guilty to US drug charges
He and his brothers are accused of reviving the Sinaloa Cartel after their father’s arrest by embracing fentanyl
A son of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded guilty on Friday to four criminal counts in two related drug-trafficking cases targeting the notorious Sinaloa Cartel.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug distribution and two counts of participation in a continuing criminal enterprise before US District Judge Sharon Coleman in Chicago.
He faces a possible life sentence.
Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brothers – known as the “Chapitos”, or little Chapos – revived the Sinaloa Cartel after their father’s arrest in 2016 by embracing fentanyl, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in profits by sending the deadly opioid to the US.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, also known as “El Raton” or “Raton Nuevo”, was extradited to the US from Mexico in September 2023 as part of the federal government’s war on fentanyl, a highly lethal drug that killed nearly 200 Americans daily in 2023.
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That death toll has been a flashpoint in US President Donald Trump’s trade negotiations with Mexico, with Trump demanding Mexico do more to stop the flow of fentanyl in exchange for tariff relief.