Second El Chapo son pleads not guilty to drug trafficking charges

CHICAGO (CN) — Joaquín Guzmán López, son of infamous Sinaloa Cartel kingpin “El Chapo” Joaquín Guzmán Loera, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple federal drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges in Chicago. The 38-year-old appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit, accompanied by federal marshals.

Guzmán López — also known as “El Guero” — faced his arraignment just days after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced federal authorities had taken him into custody in El Paso, Texas. He was reportedly apprehended alongside Sinaloa co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, also known as “El Mayo.”

“Both men are facing multiple charges in the United States for leading the cartel’s operations, including its deadly drug manufacturing and trafficking networks,” Garland said in prepared remarks last week.

The high-profile arrest generated international intrigue and led to allegations that Guzmán López had reached a deal with the U.S. government to deliver the 76-year-old El Mayo. Over the weekend, Zambada Garcia’s Dallas-based attorney Frank Perez told CNN that Guzmán López had “forcibly kidnapped” El Mayo, ambushing the older man and bringing him to the U.S. by tying him to a seat on an airplane on which only he, Guzmán López and the pilot were present.

Guzmán López’s New York-based attorney Jeffrey Lichtman flatly denied his client had any deal with the government after court on Tuesday. Lichtman further said he had not spoken with El Mayo’s attorneys on how they were approaching the case.

“We’ve got no agreement with the government. There has never been an agreement with the government with Joaquín Guzmán López,” Lichtman told assembled press in Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse.  

Lichtman nevertheless said he was impressed El Mayo had managed to avoid prison for so long, and wished him well.

“He’s managed to stay clear of a jail cell for 50 years. 50. Five-zero,” Lichtman said. “It’s very impressive, I'm not sure how he did it. I wish him all the luck in the world.”

Federal authorities unsealed a January 2023 indictment against Guzmán López that April, though the federal case against Sinaloa leaders in Chicago goes back to 2009. Jurors in Brooklyn convicted El Chapo in February 2019 on multiple drug trafficking and criminal enterprise charges, and in July that year U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, a George W. Bush appointee, sentenced him to life-plus-30-years behind bars. 

El Guero is the second of El Chapo’s sons to face a federal arraignment in Chicago since then, stemming from the 2023 indictment. His brother Ovidio Guzmán López, “El Raton,” pleaded not guilty to similar charges this past September.

They and two other of El Chapo’s sons who are not in custody — collectively known as the “Chapitos” — are accused of taking over the Sinaloa Cartel following their father's own extradition from Mexico to the U.S. in 2017. Under the Chapitos' watch, according to court filings, the Sinaloa Cartel continued to move large amounts of cocaine, cannabis and heroin into the U.S. from Central and South America. It also accuses them of dealing in methamphetamine and other precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs.

A separate indictment filed against the remaining free brothers, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jésus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, in New York, makes more lurid accusations against the Chapitos. It claims they asserted dominance in the drug trade through fear and intimidation, including by feeding living victims — rival drug traffickers, disloyal workers and uncooperative government officials — to pet tigers.

"Once information was obtained by these captives, typically through torture, these individuals were killed — either by or at the direction of the Chapitos themselves — and the bodies disposed of throughout the area. While many of these victims were shot, others were fed dead or alive to tigers," the indictment says.

The brothers have denied those claims, stating in a letter released to The Associated Press in May 2023 that they have been made "scapegoats" for larger issues related to the drug trade, particularly concerns over fentanyl.

"We have never produced, manufactured or commercialized fentanyl nor any of its derivatives," the brothers wrote. "We are victims of persecution and have been made into scapegoats."

Follow @djbyrnes1

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit