The son of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera told his father’s former partner that his presence was needed for a meeting in Sinaloa, Mexico.
He lured the co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel into a room where glass had been removed from a floor-to-ceiling window. Then he locked the door as his henchmen climbed in through the window, snapped handcuffs on Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and pulled a bag over his head.
A short time later, Joaquin Guzman Lopez found himself aboard a small plane bound for New Mexico, hoping the feds would look favorably at him for delivering “El Mayo,” who was drugged and zip-tied to a seat nearby.
Guzman Lopez, 39, admitted to that brazen kidnapping, along with a host of other serious drug crimes, as he pleaded guilty Monday inside a 12th-floor courtroom in Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Courthouse. The son of “El Chapo” struck a deal that could ultimately save him from a lifetime behind bars, but he agreed he’ll receive no credit for the abduction of “El Mayo.”
Instead, Guzman Lopez has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in Chicago, California and Washington D.C. If he holds up his end of the bargain, the feds could allow him to be sentenced to less than the life sentence required under one of the crimes he admitted to Monday. But in no case would he wind up with a sentence of less than 10 years.
Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to a drug trafficking conspiracy and a continuing criminal enterprise. He admitted that he and his brothers, known as the Chapitos, eventually took control of the Sinaloa drug cartel once led by “El Chapo” and “El Mayo,” and that they strengthened their grip on it through brutal violence.
But likely to garner more attention is his admission to the daring abduction of “El Mayo,” who is now 75.
Guzman Lopez and “El Mayo” were taken into custody at the same time in July 2024, and rumors swirled at the time that Guzman Lopez had kidnapped “El Mayo.” Guzman Lopez attorney Jeffrey Lichtman dismissed the claim at the time as coming from “lawyers who are trying to score points with the media.”
Asked about the claim Monday, Lichtman told reporters “it’s not the first time that a lawyer has stated something that’s changed over time.”
“El Mayo” pleaded guilty this summer to drug charges in New York. His former partner, “El Chapo,” was also convicted in New York in 2019, and he’s serving a life sentence in Colorado.
Guzman Lopez’s plea agreement details how men working for Guzman Lopez confronted “El Mayo” in the locked room. They then carried him through the open window and placed him across their laps in the backseat of a waiting pickup truck.
Guzman Lopez joined them for the 10-to-15-minute ride to an air strip where the small plane waited. The men loaded “El Mayo” onto the plane, also boarded by Guzman Lopez and a pilot.
Once the plane took off, Guzman Lopez prepared a drink with sedatives that he then shared with “El Mayo,” according to the document.
Guzman Lopez kidnapped “El Mayo” in the hopes of “receiving cooperation credit from the United States government for himself and his brother,” the plea deal says. However, it adds, “he will not receive cooperation credit for the kidnapping, nor will his brother.”
A federal grand jury handed up an indictment in 2023 leveling charges against four of the Chapitos. Charged along with Guzman Lopez were Ovidio Guzman Lopez, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty in July and struck a similar deal. The brothers admitted they coordinated the shipment of drugs — including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana — into the United States and Chicago.
The brothers have also been 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.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez appeared for his hearing Monday in an orange jail jumpsuit, and he answered questions from U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman in English. He told her about his high blood pressure and about taking anxiety medication to quell physical symptoms.
But at one point, Coleman asked him what he’d done for a living.
“Drug trafficking,” he told her.
“Oh, that’s your job?” Coleman replied. “OK, there you go.”