{"id":324744,"date":"2025-12-01T20:58:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/324744\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T20:58:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:58:18","slug":"son-of-drug-kingpin-el-chapo-pleads-guilty-in-us-drug-trafficking-case-in-deal-with-prosecutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/324744\/","title":{"rendered":"Son of drug kingpin \u2018El Chapo\u2019 pleads guilty in US drug trafficking case in deal with prosecutors"},"content":{"rendered":"

AP
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n A son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d pleaded guilty Monday to US drug trafficking charges, months after his brother entered a plea deal.\n <\/p>\n

\n Known locally in Mexico as the \u201cChapitos,\u201d<\/a> or \u201clittle Chapos,\u201d Joaquin Guzman Lopez<\/a> and his brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, are accused of running a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. Federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send \u201cstaggering\u201d quantities of fentanyl into the US.\n <\/p>\n

\n Joaquin Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise.\n <\/p>\n

\"Joaqu\u00edn<\/p>\n

\n He and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after they landed in the US on a private plane. Both men have previously pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges. Their dramatic capture<\/a> prompted a surge in violence in Mexico\u2019s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.\n <\/p>\n

\n As part of the plea deal, Joaquin Guzman Lopez admitted to helping oversee the production and smuggling of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the United States, fueling a crisis<\/a> that has contributed to tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually.\n <\/p>\n

\n In July, Ovidio Guzman Lopez became the first son of drug lord Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman<\/a> to enter a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. Legal experts called the plea deal a significant step for the US government in their investigation and prosecution of Sinaloa cartel leaders.\n <\/p>\n

\n Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman<\/a> is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. The brothers allegedly assumed their father\u2019s former role as leaders of the cartel.\n <\/p>\n

\n This is a developing story and will be updated.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 A son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d pleaded guilty Monday to US drug trafficking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-324744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}