Second ‘El Chapo’ son in plea negotiations with U.S. prosecutors

A second son of imprisoned Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera has entered into plea deal negotiations with federal prosecutors, lawyers disclosed Tuesday during a court hearing in Chicago.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez has “just started” negotiating with federal prosecutors, an assistant U.S. attorney said in court. His younger brother Ovidio Guzman Lopez began plea negotiations months earlier, attorneys said in October.

Neither brother showed up to their first joint court hearing at Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Building on Tuesday, where attorneys asked a federal judge for more time to continue plea negotiations.

The brothers are both represented by New York-based attorney Jeffrey Lichtman, who appeared by teleconference. The brothers are being held at the nearby Metropolitan Correctional Center.

In court, prosecutors said they have “begun to explore a global resolution” to the charges against the brothers. Prosecutors requested a future court date so they could continue the plea negotiations.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman set Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s next hearing for Feb. 27. Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s hearing was set for March 19.

The brothers are accused of helping run their father’s drug empire, which allegedly trafficked loads of fentanyl-laced drugs into the U.S., after El Chapo was captured in 2016 in Mexico.

Four of Guzman Loera’s sons were charged in 2023 in Chicago. Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested first, in 2023, and extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded not guilty.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez surrendered to U.S. authorities last year, flying from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, with his father’s former cartel partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Zambada was allegedly duped into thinking the flight was to an airfield in northern Mexico. Zambada has pleaded not guilty in federal court in New York.

Rumors circulated that Joaquin Guzman Lopez had struck a deal with federal authorities prior to his arrest. But Lichtman told reporters repeatedly that there was no such deal.

El Chapo’s two other sons remain at large.