Sons of “El Chapo” are negotiating plea deal over drug trafficking charges, U.S. attorneys say

Two sons of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” facing sweeping drug-trafficking charges in the U.S. are in plea negotiations with the federal government, attorneys acknowledged Tuesday in a Chicago courtroom.

Neither Ovidio Guzmán López, 34, nor Joaquin Guzmán López, 38, appeared at the brief hearing.

Word of a possible deal for Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who has pleaded not guilty, was first disclosed during an October court date. It came months after his brother, Joaquin Guzmán López, was arrested in an astonishing capture by U.S. authorities in Texas with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

Attorneys on Tuesday also publicly confirmed plea negotiations recently began for Joaquin Guzmán López, who has also pleaded not guilty.

“We need a bit more time,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine said in court. “We’re trying to explore whether there might be a global resolution.”

He did not elaborate in court and declined to talk to reporters afterward.

Zambada had eluded U.S. authorities for years. He was believed to be more involved in daily operations of the cartel than his better-known and flashier boss, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019.

In recent years, Guzmán’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. In 2023, federal prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments against dozens of members of the Sinaloa cartel, including the brothers, in a fentanyl-trafficking investigation.

The FBI alleges Zambada and Joaquin Guzmán López oversaw the trafficking of “tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence.” Zambada is due in court in New York next week.

The men’s dramatic July capture — with many details still unknown — has sparked theories about how federal authorities pulled it off. It also prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.

Zambada’s attorney claims his client was kidnapped by Joaquin Guzmán López and brought to the U.S. aboard a private plane that landed near El Paso. The brothers’ defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman has dismissed those claims and previously denied any government cooperation.

He did not offer any details during Tuesday’s hearing, which he attended via phone.

Ovidio Guzmán López is due in court Feb. 27. Joaquin Guzmán López’s next court date is March 19.