A son of Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera admitted Monday to the brazen kidnapping of his father’s former partner as he struck a deal with federal authorities in Chicago that could save him from a life prison sentence.
A prosecutor laid out the details of the daring abduction of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia in court, telling a judge that men working for “El Chapo” son Joaquin Guzman Lopez entered a locked room through an open floor-to-ceiling window in Mexico in July 2024. The men handcuffed “El Mayo” and put a bag over his head, the prosecutor said.
Guzman Lopez then gave “El Mayo” a sedative during a flight to New Mexico, in hopes of a sentencing break from U.S. prosecutors. By then, the feds had already secured an indictment against Guzman Lopez and his brothers — known as the “Chapitos.”
“El Mayo” is a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel. He pleaded guilty to his summer to drug charges in New York. His former partner, “El Chapo,” is already serving a life sentence in Colorado following his 2019 conviction in Brooklyn.
Though Guzman Lopez won’t be getting credit for the “El Mayo” kidnapping, he did enter into a plea deal Monday that could lead to a prison sentence of as little as 10 years.
Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty Monday to a drug trafficking conspiracy and to a continuing criminal enterprise. The latter count carries a mandatory life sentence, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine told a judge prosecutors could allow Guzman Lopez to be sentenced to less than life if he fulfills a promise to cooperate with the feds going forward.
Under no circumstances would he be looking at less than 10 years in prison, Erskine said.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman took Guzman Lopez’s plea and set a status hearing in the case for June 1. At one point during the hearing, she asked Guzman Lopez what he’d done for a living. He told her, “drug trafficking.”
“Oh, that’s your job?” Coleman replied. “Ok, there you go.”
Guzman Lopez is the second “El Chapo” son to plead guilty in Chicago’s federal courthouse. Four of the imprisoned kingpin’s sons were charged in a 2023 indictment that accused them of taking control of their father’s empire and strengthening their grip through brutal violence.
Guzman Lopez was taken into custody in July 2024, and rumors swirled at the time that Guzman Lopez had actually kidnapped “El Mayo.” Guzman Lopez’s attorney dismissed the claim at the time as coming from “lawyers who are trying to score points with the media.”
Charged along with Guzman Lopez in 2023 were Ovidio Guzman Lopez, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar.
Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said the charges were part of a wider campaign against “the largest, most violent and most prolific fentanyl-trafficking operation in the world — run by the Sinaloa cartel and fueled by Chinese precursor chemical and pharmaceutical companies.”
The four brothers were accused of torturing their enemies by electrocuting them, waterboarding them and feeding them alive to tigers. Authorities said Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar kept the animals on ranches as pets.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty in July to two drug trafficking conspiracy counts, as well as two counts of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. He admitted his involvement in the Battle of Culiacan in the Sinaloa cartel’s stronghold in Mexico where, on Oct. 17, 2019, about 700 armed cartel members attacked government and military targets.
He also acknowledged that he and his brothers coordinated the shipment of drugs — including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana — from countries in Central America and South America to Mexico and then into the United States and Chicago.
Two of the counts admitted to by Ovidio Guzman Lopez carry a mandatory life sentence. However, he struck a deal similar to his brothers that would allow for him to possibly be sentenced to a prison term of less than life if he makes good on his promise to cooperate with federal authorities across the nation.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.