By Homeland Security Investigations - Wikipedia
One of the sons of notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to plead guilty in a sweeping drug trafficking case in the United States, according to court records.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez is scheduled to appear in a Chicago federal court on Friday, where he intends to change his plea from not guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors. If finalized, it would mark the first time a son of El Chapo has entered into a plea agreement with U.S. authorities.
Federal prosecutors allege that Ovidio and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez—who together are known in Mexico as Los Chapitos—headed a powerful faction of the infamous Sinaloa cartel. They are accused of orchestrating a massive fentanyl trafficking operation, which funneled what officials have described as a “staggering” quantity of the deadly synthetic opioid into the United States.
The U.S. has grappled with a devastating opioid epidemic over the past several decades, with fentanyl at the center of the crisis, leading to widespread addiction, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and a flurry of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and drug networks alike.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the father of the accused, is currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison following his 2019 conviction for drug trafficking and other charges. After his arrest and imprisonment, Ovidio and his siblings allegedly stepped into key leadership roles within the cartel, continuing its operations and expanding its influence.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was apprehended by Mexican security forces in early 2023 and later extradited to the U.S. He initially pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including drug trafficking, money laundering, and firearms offenses.
His brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, along with longtime cartel figure Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were captured in Texas in 2024 after arriving via private aircraft. Both men are currently facing multiple federal charges and have pleaded not guilty. Their arrests sparked widespread violence across the state of Sinaloa, with rival factions of the cartel battling for dominance over key drug routes used to manufacture and transport narcotics—especially fentanyl—into the U.S.
The ongoing internal conflict has largely divided the Sinaloa cartel into two camps: those loyal to its original co-founders, El Chapo Guzman and El Mayo Zambada.
As the U.S. intensifies its crackdown on fentanyl trafficking, Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s expected plea deal may represent a significant development in efforts to dismantle the cartel’s transnational drug network.
