One of the sons of former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has begun plea negotiations with federal prosecutors in Chicago on sweeping narcotics trafficking charges alleging they took over day-to-day operations of the cartel after their father’s arrest.
The development in the case against Ovidio Guzmán López, 34, was revealed during a brief status hearing before U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, the first since Lopez’s brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was arrested in dramatic fashion in July.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine told the judge both sides were in preliminary discussions to “resolve this case short of trial,” and said they hoped to have more information about a potential deal at the next hearing in January.
It’s the first indication that either brother was looking to cut a deal, and could have big implications for Sinaloa co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who is facing a related indictment in New York.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who was arrested last year and extradited to the U.S. to face the charges, appeared in court in an orange jail outfit and listened to the proceedings through a Spanish interpreter. He told the judge he agreed to keep attorney Jeffrey Lichtman as his attorney and would waive any conflict over Lichtman also representing his brother.
“I have spoken to Mr. Lichtman and yes, it is alright,” he said.
After court, Lichtman told reporters in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse that the negotiations are in their very early stages. As long as one brother isn’t cooperating against the other, there is no actual conflict in him representing both of them, he said.
“At this point, the government is not objecting,” Lichtman said. “Sometimes they do. I’ve been tossed out of plenty of cases due to conflicts…It may become an actual conflict (in this case) and if it does you won’t be seeing me again.”
The brothers are among 28 reputed members of the notorious Sinaloa cartel charged as part of a multijurisdictional fentanyl-trafficking investigation unveiled in April 2023 by U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland and other top federal prosecutors, including acting Chicago U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual.
In outlining the charges, Garland described the violence of the Sinaloa cartel and how its members have tortured perceived enemies, including Mexican law enforcement officials. In some cases, cartel members also have fed victims, some still alive, to tigers owned by Guzmán’s sons, Garland said.
The superseding Chicago indictment, which was filed under seal in January 2023, alleged the brothers assumed day-to-day control of the cartel after their father’s arrest in 2016. The indictment accuses the sons of orchestrating the shipment of thousands of pounds of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs into the U.S. by rail, road and through tunnels and other means.
The sons allegedly furthered the conspiracy by bribing public officials and using guns and other dangerous weapons to commit violence, including murder, kidnapping, and assault “against law enforcement, rival drug traffickers and members of their own trafficking organization,” the indictment alleged.
The older brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, has been in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago since his arrest at a small airport near El Paso on a private plane that was also carrying Zambada Garcia, the notoriously elusive Sinaloa cartel co-founder.
Zambada’s lawyer later claimed his client was “forcibly kidnapped” by Joaquín Guzmán López, who ambushed him in Mexico along with six men in military uniforms, put a bag over his head and drove him to a landing strip.
“He was forced onto a plane, his legs tied to the seat by Joaquin, and brought to the U.S. against his will,” the attorney said in a statement. “The only people on the plane were the pilot, Joaquin and my client.”
Lichtman has disputed that account as self-serving, but has not offered his own account of how his client got to be on that plane with El Mayo. He has also insisted there was no deal with federal prosecutors at the time his client arrived on U.S. soil.
“Eventually it will all come out,” he said after Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s arraignment. “But as a defense lawyer it’s just noise. I’m here to help the man and get him the best possible result. I’m not here to respond to the internet. …Whatever happened was not done at the direction of the government.”
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
