Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of notorious Mexican drug lord “El Chapo,” pleaded guilty Monday to U.S. drug trafficking charges, following a similar plea agreement by his brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, earlier this year.
Known in Mexico as the “Chapitos,” the brothers are accused of running a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. Federal authorities described their operation in 2023 as a large-scale effort to funnel massive amounts of fentanyl and other narcotics into the United States. Joaquin Guzman Lopez admitted to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise.
He and longtime Sinaloa leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada were arrested in Texas in July 2024 after arriving on a private plane. Their capture, which followed years of alleged cartel activity, triggered a wave of violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as rival factions clashed.
Under the terms of his plea deal, Joaquin Guzman Lopez acknowledged overseeing the production and smuggling of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, and fentanyl into the United States, contributing to the country’s ongoing overdose crisis. His father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is serving a life sentence after a 2019 conviction for leading the Sinaloa cartel and trafficking drugs into the U.S. over more than two decades.