The son of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges Friday at a hearing in Chicago.
Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez, along with his brother Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as “Los Chapitos,” or “little Chapos.” As part of his plea deal, Ovidio Guzman Lopez admitted to overseeing a major fentanyl trafficking operation that funneled what prosecutors described as a “staggering” amount of the synthetic opioid into the United States.
Los Chapitos and their cartel associates have allegedly used corkscrews, electrocution and hot chiles to torture their rivals, while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers,” according to a 2023 U.S. indictment.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit and using headphones and an interpreter for translation, Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty Friday to four of the most serious charges against him; two counts of drug conspiracy and two counts of knowingly engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, charges filed in indictments in federal court in Chicago and New York.
He had faced up to life in prison, but how much he actually gets at sentencing will depend on his cooperation with federal authorities.
Guzman Lopez must cooperate with and provide “substantial assistance” to the government to complete the terms of his plea agreement, the judge said. If the government indicates he has provided sufficient help, then the judge will adjust her sentencing recommendations to less than life in prison.
The judge repeatedly reminded Guzman Lopez in court that the government has sole discretion on whether he has helped enough, and that she maintains sole discretion on his eventual sentence. He also agreed to forfeit $80 million in property and other assets to the government as part of his plea deal.
As part of his plea deal, Guzman Lopez – who is the first of the brothers to plead guilty – might have to share intimate details about his family’s role in smuggling drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, possibly including testifying against one of his brothers who is still awaiting trial.
“Not only his own brother, but other relatives that may or may not be charged already,” Miller said. “Many are probably not been charged yet, and I think there’s a lot of people out there that, when they hear about what happened today, they’re going to be very careful as to who they talk to and what they do, because some government official or police officer may be knocking at their door in the near future.”
The judge scheduled his next hearing for six months from now, at which point she will likely set a formal sentencing date for Guzman Lopez.
His attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, declined to say why his client decided to change his plea to guilty.
“You’ll have to ask him. That’s his decision between he and me, and I’m not going to obviously talk about any kind of privileged conversations,” Lichtman said.
Guzman Lopez’s decision to change his plea feels like a win for some, including Michael Gannon, a former assistant special agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“It immediately makes me think about the impact, in a horrible way, that he had on so many families that lost loved ones because of the fentanyl poisoning. And this is a guy that was responsible for manufacturing tens of millions of fentanyl pills that just were flooded into the United States,” he said.
Guzman Lopez’s father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal prison following a 2019 conviction. After El Chapo’s capture, Guzman Lopez and his siblings reportedly took on key leadership roles within the cartel.
Guzman Lopez was arrested by Mexican authorities in early 2023 and extradited to the U.S. months later. He originally pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges.
His brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, and longtime cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada were arrested in Texas in 2024 after arriving on a private plane. Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges. Their high-profile capture set off a wave of violence across Sinaloa as rival factions scrambled for control.
Please note: The above video is from an earlier report.
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