Two of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera’s sons have confirmed they are negotiating for a plea deal with the US government, an attorney for the pair confirmed during a federal court status hearing in Chicago on Monday.
The hearing confirmed an August report from the Mexican news organization Milenio that Ovidio Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán López were negotiating a deal for a more lenient sentence and to become cooperating witnesses for the US government.
During Monday’s hearing for Ovidio Guzmán, the federal judge also allowed for him and his brother to be represented by the same attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, who represented El Chapo during his sensational 2019 federal trial.
A number of cooperating witnesses with the US government testified against El Chapo during his trial. On Monday, El Chapo submitted a letter to the Brooklyn federal court, where his trial was held, requesting a new trial, citing “ineffective” representation and “illegal” extradition to New York.
Ovidio Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán López, along with their other two brothers still at large in Mexico, were the leaders of “Los Chapitos”, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, one of the biggest organized crime groups in Mexico.
For years, their father, El Chapo, was one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel. El Chapo’s sons stand accused in the northern district of Illinois of multiple crimes, including conspiracy to continue a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and others.
Ovidio Guzmán was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and later extradited to the US. Joaquín Guzmán López was arrested in July of this year, alongside Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the longtime, secretive and elusive leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
El Mayo accused Joaquín Guzmán López of kidnapping him in Mexico, then flying into US territory to turn him over to American officials. The Mexican attorney general’s office has launched an investigation into the events leading up to El Mayo’s kidnapping and arrest. El Mayo claimed in a letter that he was forcibly overpowered by Joaquín Guzmán López’s men, after being deceived into arriving to a meeting with the governor and another politician in the Mexican city of Culiacán.
Last week, a hearing for El Mayo’s case at a Brooklyn federal court clarified that US officials were still considering whether they want to pursue the death penalty against El Mayo. His next hearing is set for 15 January 2025.
Since El Chapo’s 2019 trial, tensions between the two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, Los Chapitos and El Mayo’s group, have continued to rise, after one of El Mayo’s sons testified against El Chapo. Since Joaquín Guzmán López’s kidnapping of El Mayo, the two factions have been engaged in an all-out war in Mexico, with both groups looking to decimate the other for drug trafficking routes and full control over the Sinaloa cartel.
The Sinaloa cartel has long been Mexico’s biggest organized crime group, dominating the drug trade, engaging in battle with rival groups and corrupting politicians.
On Wednesday of last week, Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former security minister and the architect of the Mexican “war on drugs”, was sentenced to 38 years in prison for working with the Sinaloa cartel.
During his time in office, García Luna had control over Mexico’s federal police and established a close relationship with the US government, working with the CIA, FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Cooperating witnesses testified during García Luna’s 2023 trial that, during his time in office, Sinaloa cartel leaders paid him millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for protection for their drug trafficking operations.
Ovidio Guzmán and Joaquín Guzmán López’s next hearing is set for 7 January 2025, where it may be confirmed whether they will sign a plea deal to become cooperating witnesses for the US government. Their attorney did not say whether they may, or may not, cooperate in the government’s case against El Mayo.