One of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is set to plead guilty to narcotics trafficking charges in Chicago on Monday, nearly a year and a half after his stunning flight across the Mexico border to deliver elusive Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada into the hands of U.S. authorities.
Joaquín Guzmán López, 39, is charged in Chicago’s federal court with helping his father and brothers run the notoriously violent Sinaloa cartel, importing thousands of tons of narcotics into the U.S., bribing public officials and using murder and kidnapping to amass and maintain power.
Guzmán López has been in U.S. custody since arriving in Texas on a chartered plane in July 2024 with Zambada in restraints, marking a dramatic end to El Mayo’s 40 years at the helm.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman set a change of plea hearing for Monday at 1:30 p.m., court records show.
Zambada pleaded guilty in New York August to partnering with El Chapo to lead the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world, importing thousands of tons of narcotics into the U.S., through decades of violence and corruption. Zambada is awaiting sentencing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
Earlier this year, Guzmán López’s younger brother, Ovidio, pleaded guilty in Chicago to helping his father and brothers run the cartel. He has agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities in any ongoing investigations and testify against his associates in the hopes that prosecutors will recommend a sentence of less than life without parole.
The brothers were each charged in a superseding indictment unsealed in Chicago in 2023 with assuming day-to-day control of the Sinaloa cartel after their father’s arrest in 2016. The indictment accused 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.
Two other sons, collectively known as the “Chapitos,” remain at large.
In his 37-page plea agreement entered in July, Ovidio Guzmán López admitted he and his brothers 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.”
Guzmán López admitted having a role in three specific slayings, including the December 2018 kidnapping and murder of Jesús Antonio Muñoz Parra — the father of one of their cartel rivals — in Sinaloa, and the October 2021 kidnapping and murder of another cartel operative, Geovanni Hurtado Vicente, also known as “Amigo,” in Jalisco.
Guzmán López also pleaded guilty to participating in the May 2021 killing of Mario Nungaray Bobadilla, who was shot to death outside his home in Phoenix.
The indictment was part of the same case originally filed in Chicago in 2009 against El Chapo himself as well as many of his top henchmen, which is widely considered the largest narcotics case ever brought in Chicago.
El Chapo was convicted in New York in 2019 and is serving a life sentence at a maximum security federal prison in Colorado.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com