A son of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was expected to plead guilty to narcotics charges in a Chicago court yesterday, as part of a deal in return for a reduced sentence.
Nicknamed “El Raton,” or “The Mouse,” Ovidio Guzman signed a deal dated June 30 indicating he would enter a guilty plea to avoid a jury trial and a potentially harsher sentence if convicted.
Ovidio Guzman, 35, is accused of conspiring in a continuing criminal enterprise, importing and distributing fentanyl, laundering money and using firearms.
Photo: CEPROPIE via AP
His guilty plea would likely result in a far shorter prison term than the life sentence given to his father El Chapo in 2018.
He could offer US authorities “valuable information” about the cartel and its protectors, former US Drug Enforcement Administration operations head Mike Vigil said.
Ovidio Guzman gained prominence in October 2019 when Mexican authorities detained him — only to release him later, on orders from then-Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador amid a standoff between law enforcement and gang members.
Ovidio Guzman was recaptured in January 2023 and later extradited to the US.
US authorities accused Ovidio Guzman and his three brothers of leading Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel designated by the administration of US President Donald Trump as a global “terrorist” organization.
The US alleged Ovidio Guzman and his associates trafficked fentanyl into the country, where the opioid epidemic is linked to tens of thousands of deaths.
Another son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was arrested after arriving in the US last year on a private plane with cartel cofounder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who claimed he had been kidnapped.
In its aggressive policy against drug cartels, the Trump administration announced additional sanctions against Los Chapitos in June for fentanyl trafficking and increased the reward to US$10 million for each of the fugitive brothers.
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