According to court documents filed on Tuesday, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, the son of infamous Mexican drug lord “El Chapo,” is planning to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges in the United States. Prosecutors claim that Ovidio, along with his brother Joaquin Guzman Lopez, operated a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos,” which trafficked fentanyl into the U.S. Their father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel and was responsible for smuggling large quantities of drugs into the country for over 25 years.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and later extradited to the U.S., where he faces charges including money laundering, drug offenses, and firearm violations in federal court in Chicago. While he initially pleaded not guilty, recent court records suggest that he is scheduled to appear in court on July 9 to change his plea as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. This would make Ovidio the first of the brothers to accept such an agreement.
Meanwhile, Joaquin Guzman Lopez and another Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in Texas in July after arriving in the U.S. on a private plane. Joaquin has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering, drug trafficking, and conspiracy to distribute drugs, while Zambada has also entered a not guilty plea.
The capture of these men led to increased violence between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa. Neither federal prosecutors nor Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s attorney, identified in court records as Jeffrey Lichtman, have provided immediate comments on the matter.
