Chávez Jr. deported to Mexico amid arms-trafficking, cartel links

Julio César Chávez Jr., the former WBC middleweight world champion and son of boxing legend Julio César Chávez, was deported from the United States to Mexico on an arrest warrant tied to arms trafficking and organized crime, with authorities alleging ties to the Sinaloa cartel. He was handed over to Mexican authorities and placed in a high-security facility in Sonora after a lengthy period in U.S. custody, following his arrest in Los Angeles earlier this summer.

The sequence begins with Chávez Jr.’s July arrest in the Los Angeles area by federal authorities days after his bout with Jake Paul. U.S. officials said the arrest was tied to an active Mexican warrant and to allegations surrounding links to the Sinaloa Cartel. The Mexican president indicated that Mexico had an arrest warrant for Chávez Jr. that had been in place since 2023 as part of an investigation that began in 2019, and that authorities had been pursuing the case for years. In the United States, investigators described Chávez Jr. as an individual of concern in relation to a residency process that included questions about his ties and statements on immigration paperwork. He had entered the U.S. on a B-2 visa with a...