El Chapo's Son Pleads Guilty to Drug Trafficking

In Chicago federal court on Monday, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pleaded guilty to charges of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise, admitting his role in smuggling vast quantities of narcotics into the United States. The plea, reached in a deal with federal prosecutors, follows a similar agreement by his brother Ovidio Guzman Lopez in July and marks another blow to the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel.

Guzman Lopez, 39, and his siblings are known in Mexico as the "Chapitos," or "little Chapos," for assuming control of a powerful faction of the cartel after their father's 2016 arrest. Federal authorities have accused them of overseeing the production and distribution of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl, with operations described in 2023 indictments as a massive effort that flooded the U.S. with staggering amounts of these drugs. The influx has fueled a public health crisis, contributing to tens of thousands of overdose deaths each year.

The guilty plea came nearly five months after Guzman Lopez's arrest on July 25, 2024, when he and longtime Sinaloa leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada...