The son of “El Chapo,” the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, entered a not-guilty plea on Monday, according to officials.
Guzman Lopez, 33, was extradited to the US from Mexico on Friday. Her father Joaquin Guzman is now serving a life term in a US jail.
Guzman Lopez entered a not guilty plea to several drug trafficking, money laundering, and guns counts on Monday in a US District court in Chicago, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
He is referred to as “El Raton” or “The Mouse,” and he is charged with planning to smuggle drugs into the US, including cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana.
His father was accused of controlling what was regarded as the largest drug ring in the world, extradited to the US in 2017, and found guilty in 2019.
US investigators claim that following Guzman’s incarceration, a number of his offspring, commonly referred to as “Chapitos” or “The Little Chapos,” took over leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Three further sons of 66-year-old Joaquin Guzman have also been charged in the US.
On January 5, security personnel apprehended Guzman Lopez in Culiacan, Sinaloa.
Following his detention, cartel members caused mayhem and burned cars on fire, emulating the major shootouts in 2019 when the younger Guzman was temporarily held but released to stop the bloodshed.
A few days after Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Guzman Lopez’s father, was released from a California halfway house after serving nearly two years of a three-year jail term for drug trafficking and money laundering, Guzman Lopez was extradited to the US.
Guzman Lopez’s mother, Coronel, 34, is a dual US-Mexican citizen.
