By Jack Queen
(Reuters) -A son of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to plead guilty on Friday in a sprawling drug trafficking case targeting the notorious Sinaloa Cartel.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 35, is due in Chicago federal court for a change of plea hearing, court records show. He pleaded not guilty in September 2023 to five counts of drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges.
Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brothers — known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos — revived the Sinaloa Cartel after their father’s arrest in 2016 by embracing fentanyl, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in profits by sending the deadly opioid to the U.S..
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, also known as “El Raton” or “Raton Nuevo,” was extradited to the U.S. from Mexico in September 2023 as part of the federal government’s war on fentanyl, a highly lethal drug that killed nearly 200 Americans daily in 2023.
That death toll has been a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s trade negotiations with Mexico, with Trump demanding Mexico do more to stop the flow of fentanyl in exchange for tariff relief.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez brother Joaquin Guzman Lopez was arrested in El Paso along with Sinaloa kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada last July in a dramatic coup for U.S. authorities, who recruited Joaquin Guzman Lopez to lure Zambada into the country on a private plane.
Also known as “El Guero” or “Guero Moreno,” Joaquin Guzman Lopez pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges, and prosecutors say they will not pursue the death penalty against him.
Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo, has also pleaded not guilty. In February, his lawyer told Reuters he would be willing to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed to spare him the death penalty.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado after his 2019 drug trafficking conviction.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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