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Politics|Son of El Chapo Pleads Guilty to Sweeping Drug Charges
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/el-chapo-son-pleads-guilty.html
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The plea came at a vulnerable moment for the Sinaloa drug cartel, the organization Ovidio Guzmán López’s father helped found.
July 11, 2025, 3:55 p.m. ET
Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of the notorious Mexican crime lord known as El Chapo, pleaded guilty on Friday to sprawling federal drug charges and using violence to help take control of his father’s criminal empire.
Mr. Guzmán López was the first of El Chapo’s four sons to admit guilt in an American courtroom. His plea came at a vulnerable moment for the Sinaloa drug cartel, the organization his father helped to found. The group is under such pressure in Mexico from the government and its adversaries that it recently formed a strategic alliance with a rival drug gang.
At a heavily guarded hearing in Federal District Court in Chicago, Mr. Guzmán López, wearing an orange jumpsuit, acknowledged having taken part in a sweeping drug conspiracy and a continuing criminal enterprise. He also admitted to playing a role in three murders in Mexico and Arizona.
As part of his plea deal with the government, he has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, though it remains unclear what information he has provided the authorities.
Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, who is overseeing his case, did not set a date for Mr. Guzmán López to be sentenced. While some of the charges he pleaded guilty to technically carry a life sentence, his lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he was unlikely to be punished with life in prison.
The charges Mr. Guzmán López acknowledged came from two separate indictments, one filed in Chicago and the other in New York. Mr. Guzmán López’s full brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, is also in custody in Chicago and is trying to negotiate his own plea deal.
