CHICAGO – Two sons of infamous Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” dealing with sweeping drug-trafficking prices within the U.S. are in plea negotiations with the federal authorities, attorneys acknowledged Tuesday in a Chicago courtroom.
Neither Ovidio Guzmán López, 34, nor Joaquin Guzmán López, 38, appeared on the temporary listening to.
Background
Phrase of a doable deal for Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who has pleaded not responsible, was first disclosed throughout an October courtroom date. It got here months after his brother, Joaquin Guzmán López, was arrested in an astonishing seize by U.S. authorities in Texas with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime chief of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
Attorneys on Tuesday additionally publicly confirmed plea negotiations just lately started for Joaquin Guzmán López, who has additionally pleaded not responsible.
“We’d like a bit extra time,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Andrew Erskine mentioned in courtroom. “We’re attempting to discover whether or not there may be a world decision.”
He didn’t elaborate in courtroom and declined to speak to reporters afterward.
Zambada had eluded U.S. authorities for years. He was believed to be extra concerned in every day operations of the cartel than his better-known and flashier boss, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in jail within the U.S. in 2019.
Prolific drug traffickers
In recent times, Guzmán’s sons have led a faction of the cartel often known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, that has been recognized as a important exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. In 2023, federal prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments towards dozens of members of the Sinaloa cartel, together with the brothers, in a fentanyl-trafficking investigation.
The FBI alleges Zambada and Joaquin Guzmán López oversaw the trafficking of “tens of 1000’s of kilos of medication into the US, together with associated violence.” Zambada is due in courtroom in New York subsequent week.
A dramatic seize
The boys’s dramatic July seize — with many particulars nonetheless unknown — has sparked theories about how federal authorities pulled it off. It additionally prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.
Zambada’s legal professional claims his consumer was kidnapped by Joaquin Guzmán López and delivered to the U.S. aboard a personal airplane that landed close to El Paso. The brothers’ protection legal professional Jeffrey Lichtman has dismissed these claims and beforehand denied any authorities cooperation.
He didn’t provide any particulars throughout Tuesday’s listening to, which he attended through telephone.
What’s subsequent
Ovidio Guzmán López is due in courtroom Feb. 27. Joaquin Guzmán López’s subsequent courtroom date is March 19.
