CHICAGO, United States – In a significant development for US-Mexico counter-narcotics efforts, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a prominent son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, reversed his plea to guilty on charges of narcotics trafficking and operating a continuing criminal enterprise. The plea change, entered Monday at the US District Court in Chicago, marks a pivotal moment in the protracted legal battle against the Sinaloa Cartel’s leadership.
The defendant, one of four brothers known collectively as ‘Los Chapitos,’ had initially pleaded not guilty following his dramatic arrest in Texas in July 2024. His apprehension occurred upon arrival aboard a private aircraft alongside Ismael ‘Mayo’ Zambada, a co-founder of the criminal organization. Zambada subsequently alleged he had been deceived about the journey’s purpose and effectively kidnapped to be delivered to US authorities.
This judicial proceeding follows the precedent set by his brother, Ovidio Guzman, who in July 2025 struck a plea agreement with US prosecutors. In exchange for a reduced sentence, Ovidio admitted guilt to conspiracy and charges related to leading a criminal enterprise, formally acknowledging that he and his siblings had assumed control of their father’s vast illicit operations.
The guilty pleas from the Guzman heirs occur against a backdrop of intense internal cartel conflict. The arrest of Joaquin Guzman Lopez ignited violent factional warfare between factions loyal to the ‘Chapitos’ and those following Zambada. Official Mexican government statistics link this internal power struggle to approximately 1,200 fatalities and 1,400 disappearances, highlighting the devastating human cost of the cartel’s instability.
The Sinaloa Cartel remains a primary focus of US drug policy, particularly for its role in manufacturing and trafficking fentanyl—a synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually in the United States. The Trump administration has classified the cartel among six Mexican drug-trafficking groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. In a hardened stance, the administration imposed additional sanctions on ‘Los Chapitos’ in June 2024 and elevated rewards for information leading to the capture of the remaining fugitive brothers, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, to $10 million each.
‘El Chapo’ himself, the 68-year-old patriarch, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole at the ADX Florence supermax prison in Colorado, following his conviction in a high-profile 2019 trial.