The son of imprisoned Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera was arraigned Monday in Chicago on federal drug charges, following his extradition from Mexico to the U.S. for international drug trafficking late last week.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arraigned in federal court before U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman.
Guzman Lopez pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment alleging from about May 2008, until at least Oct. 21, 2021, he engaged in a drug trafficking Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE), along with drug, money laundering and firearms charges.
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This frame grab from video, provided by the Mexican government, shows Ovidio Guzman Lopez being detained in Culiacan, Mexico, Oct. 17, 2019. On Friday, he was extradited to the United States from Mexico, the Justice Department said. (CEPROPIE via AP/File)
He was charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana from Mexico and elsewhere, to be imported into the U.S.
Along with pleading not guilty, Guzman Lopez waived his right to a detention hearing and was ordered to remain in custody without bond.
The DOJ said the charges stem from a decades-long effort between the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section (NDDS) in Washington, D.C., the Northern District of Illinois, Southern District of California and their law enforcement partners.
Authorities escort Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, center, from a plane in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. (U.S. law enforcement via AP/File)
Guzman Lopez was arrested in January by Mexican authorities in Culiacan, Sinaloa, following an intense firefight that killed 30 people, including 10 military personnel. The government tried capturing him three years earlier, but an aborted operation set off a wave of cartel violence in the state capital.
The army used Black Hawk helicopter gunships against the cartel’s truck-mounted .50-caliber machine guns. Cartel gunmen hit two military aircraft forcing them to land and sent gunmen to the city’s airport where military and civilian aircraft were hit by gunfire.
The capture came just days before President Biden visited Mexico for bilateral talks followed by the North American Leaders’ Summit.
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Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. (KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images/File)
Guzman Lopez and his brothers, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez — known collectively as the “Chapitos” — are accused of steering the Sinaloa Cartel increasingly into synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.
After their father’s arrest in January 2016, the DOJ said, “the Chapitos” allegedly assumed their father’s former role as leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, along with Zambada Garcia and Damaso Lopez Nunez, aka Licenciado.
Amassing greater control over the Sinaloa Cartel by allegedly threatening and causing violence against Lopez Nunez, his family and associates, the Chapitos became principal leaders and drug traffickers with the cartel.
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López Obrador blames a deterioration of family values in the U.S. for the high levels of drug addiction in that country.
The wife of Guzman Loera, Emma Coronel Aispuro, 34, was released this week from a low-security facility in Los Angeles but remains under 48 months of supervised release following her a low-security facility in Los Angeles but remains under 48 months of supervised release.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
