Son of jailed Mexican drug lord ‘El Chapo’ to plead guilty in US court

According to federal court records, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s son, a well-known Mexican drug lord, will enter a guilty plea next week on drug trafficking charges.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the four sons of the detained Sinaloa cartel leader “El Chapo,” entered a not-guilty plea in Texas shortly after his arrest in July 2024.

However, federal documents show that Guzman Lopez will change his plea during a hearing scheduled for Monday in Chicago’s US District Court.

Ovidio Guzman, one of his three brothers, admitted to conspiracy relating to drug trafficking and two counts of engaging in criminal activity as part of a plea deal that was exchanged for a shorter sentence in July 2025.

Ovidio Guzman also acknowledged that, following his arrest in 2016, he and his brothers, “Los Chapitos” (Little Chapos), had taken over their father’s operations within the cartel.

According to Mexican broadcaster MVS Noticias, Guzman Lopez’s guilty plea may signal the start of a new chapter in the history of drug trafficking.

The news outlet stated that “the possibility of ongoing negotiations between him and US authorities has been raised by this action.”

According to the ABC 7 Chicago news channel, federal prosecutors have stated that they are “going to look into a plea deal now in the works” and that they will not be seeking Guzman Lopez’s death sentence.

He will show up in court on Monday at 12:30 PM (GMT) in Chicago.

Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfred Guzman Salazar, two other “Chapitos” brothers, have been charged with drug trafficking in the US but still remain at large.

El Chapo, their 68-year-old father, was arrested and found guilty in 2019 and is currently serving a life sentence in a Colorado supermax prison.

Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, the cofounder of the Sinaloa cartel, and Guzman Lopez were both taken into custody last year when he arrived in Texas on a small private plane.

Zambada claimed that Guzman Lopez had misled him about the destination and that he had been abducted, and that he had been turned over to US authorities without permission.

Conflicts between two Sinaloa cartel factions, led by the “Los Chapitos” brothers and Zambada, grew after the arrest. According to official figures, the infighting resulted in about 1,200 deaths and about 1,400 disappearances in Mexico.

Relations with Mexico are strained by the Sinaloa cartel’s accusations of trafficking fentanyl into the nation, where the synthetic drug has resulted in tens of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years.

Additionally, the cartel is one of six Mexican drug-trafficking organizations designated by US President Donald Trump as international terrorist organizations.