Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in a Chicago federal court, days after he was arrested in a dramatic operation in which he allegedly turned over his father’s former business partner to U.S. authorities.
Guzmán López, 38, was arrested Thursday along with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the other co-founder of one of Mexico’s most powerful organized crime groups, after landing in a small plane in El Paso, Texas.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit but without handcuffs, Guzmán López pleaded guilty during a hearing that lasted about 10 minutes.
While El Chapo is already serving a life sentence in the United States, El Mayo has evaded justice for decades, despite the $15 million bounty on his head. Zambada pleaded not guilty to all charges during a court appearance last Friday.
U.S. officials told their Mexican counterparts, who were unaware of the operation, that Guzmán López had surrendered, but provided confusing accounts of the nature of El Mayo’s arrest.
Two theories have been put forward in a frenzy of speculation: either El Mayo also surrendered, or he was betrayed by Guzmán López, perhaps in exchange for better terms for him and his brother, Ovidio Guzmán López, currently on trial in the United States.
El Mayo is believed to be over 70 years old and, according to some accounts, suffers from cancer and diabetes, which could suggest a motive for negotiating his own arrest with the United States, where several members of his close family are already in prison.
However, U.S. police sources initially indicated that Guzmán López had tricked El Mayo into boarding a plane to inspect clandestine airfields before taking him to the United States.
Then, over the weekend, El Mayo’s lawyer rejected both versions, saying his client had been violently abducted.
“Joaquín Guzmán López forcibly abducted my client. He was ambushed, thrown to the ground and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquín. His legs were tied and a black bag was placed over his head,” Frank Pérez said in a text messaged statement. “He was then thrown into the back of a van and taken to a runway. There, he was forced onto a plane, with his legs tied to the seat by Joaquín, and taken to the United States against his will.”
This version of events could be just a smokescreen to cover up an agreement between El Mayo and the US authorities. But the Chapitos – the faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by El Chapo’s sons – have not yet denied the accusation of treason.
Asked about the kidnapping charges, Jeffrey Lichtman, Guzmán López’s attorney, said: “Mr. Zambada is free to use whatever defense he wishes to the charges against him.”
Amid the secrecy and intrigue, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, has asked the United States to explain exactly what happened.
The issue is diplomatically tense, both because of the assumption that the United States acted unilaterally and the possibility that Guzmán López and El Mayo exchanged information about political corruption in Mexico for better deals.
If El Mayo was indeed betrayed by Guzmán López, there could be an upsurge in violence between their factions of the Sinaloa cartel, which have been fighting intermittently since El Chapo’s arrest in 2017.
Rival criminal groups – notably the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, which is engaged in violent struggles with the Sinaloa cartel across Mexico – could also see an opportunity to expand their influence.
On Monday, López Obrador took the unusual step of publicly appealing to criminal groups not to fight each other after the arrests, while sending additional troops to Sinaloa just in case.
North of the border, the Biden administration has cast the arrests as a blow to the trafficking of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is fueling an overdose crisis in the United States that kills about 70,000 people a year.
