CHICAGO –
Two sons of notorious Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” facing extensive drug trafficking charges in the United States are in plea negotiations with the federal government, attorneys acknowledged Tuesday in a Chicago court.
Neither Ovidio Guzmán López, 34 years old, nor Joaquín Guzmán López, 38 years old, appeared at the brief hearing.
News of a possible deal for Ovidio Guzmán López, who has pleaded not guilty, was first revealed during a court date in October. It came months after his brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, was arrested in a surprising capture by US authorities in Texas with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a former leader of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.
Lawyers also publicly confirmed Tuesday that they recently began plea negotiations for Joaquín Guzmán López, who also pleaded not guilty.
“We need a little more time,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine said in court. “We are trying to explore whether there could be a global resolution.”
He gave no further details in court and declined to speak to reporters afterward.
Zambada had eluded US authorities for years. He was believed to be more involved in the cartel’s daily operations than its best-known and most striking boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019.
In recent years, Guzmán’s children have led a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, which has been identified as one of the main exporters of fentanyl to the United States. In 2023, federal prosecutors revealed extensive indictments against dozens of members of the Sinaloa cartel, including the brothers, in a fentanyl trafficking investigation.
The FBI alleges that Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López oversaw the trafficking of “tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence.” Zambada is due to appear in court in New York next week.
The dramatic capture of the men in July, of which many details are still unknown, has generated theories about how federal authorities accomplished it. It also caused a spike in violence in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.
Zambada’s lawyer claims that his client was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López and taken to the United States aboard a private plane that landed near El Paso. The brothers’ defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, dismissed those claims and previously denied any government cooperation.
He did not offer any details during Tuesday’s hearing, which he attended by telephone.
Ovidio Guzmán López must appear in court on February 27. Joaquín Guzmán López’s next court date is March 19.