Zürcher Nachrichten - Son of kingpin 'El Chapo' to plead guilty to drug trafficking in US

Ovidio Guzman is accused of conspiring to ship cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States, via a faction of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel founded by his father.

Federal court documents dated June 30 and signed by Ovidio Guzman, alias "Raton" (Mouse), say he wishes to plead guilty to settle the case and to waive trial in Illinois, where he is being held.

According to documents from the Chicago court hearing his case, a plea hearing is scheduled for July 9 before Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman. After that hearing, the judge will sentence him at a date yet to be determined.

US authorities accuse Ovidio and his three brothers of leading Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel designated by the Trump administration as a global "terrorist" organization.

The United States accuses the four of trafficking fentanyl into the United States, where the opioid epidemic is linked to tens of thousands of deaths.

Ovidio Guzman was extradited to the United States in 2023 to face narcotics charges, joining his father, one of the world's most infamous drug traffickers, who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated terrorist organizations by US President Donald Trump.

Another son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was arrested after arriving in the United States last July in a private plane with cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who claimed he had been kidnapped.

The arrests sparked cartel infighting that has left more than 1,200 people dead and 1,400 missing in Sinaloa state, located in northwestern Mexico.

On Monday, the bodies of 20 people, several of them decapitated, were found on a highway bridge in a part of Mexico where factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel are fighting, authorities said.

E.Leuenberger--NZN