Ovidio Guzmán negotiates an agreement to avoid his trial in the US

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La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, October 22, 2024, p. 11

New York., Ovidio Guzmán López, one of Joaquín’s sons El Chapo Guzmán, detained in Chicago, is negotiating with the prosecution an agreement to plead guilty and avoid a trial, sources close to the case confirmed yesterday.

Extradited in September 2023 to the United States, Ovidio Guzmán López, alias The Mouseappeared this Monday before Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman in the Northern District of Illinois Court.

We have informed the court that we have contacted Ovidio Guzmán López’s lawyer to resolve his case before the trialjudicial sources confirmed to AFP.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman acknowledged that there is this dialogue with prosecutors, but there is no firm decision. The next hearing has been set for January 7, the same date on which his brother Joaquín Guzmán, arrested on July 25 upon arriving in the United States with Ismael, must also appear. May Zambada, co-founder in the 80s of the Sinaloa cartel along with El Chapo.

Zambada, 76, who has so far pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, claims to have been the victim of an ambush and deceived by Guzmán López, also known as Chapitoto be taken against his will to the United States in exchange for alleged advantages for him and his brother.

Ovidio Guzmán, like his brother Joaquín, has pleaded not guilty before the US justice system, which accuses the Chapitos to take command of the Sinaloa cartel, along with Zambada García and Dámaso López Núñez, alias The Bachelorafter the arrest of El Chapo Guzmán, sentenced in 2019 to life imprisonment in that country.

Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán are the only ones from the clan of Chapitos detained in the United States, which has also accused his brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo.

Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges pending against them: participation in a criminal enterprise, drug trafficking, money laundering, use of firearms and distribution of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl, which could constitute a chain life.

Lichtman, who litigates in defense of the two brothers Ovidio and Joaquín, indicated that the cases of each of them are separate, so it is not certain that they will have an agreement at the same time or under equal conditions. In addition, he specified that the brothers are in prison and that since their arrest they have not been out of jail, as has been speculated.

Last week, the US justice system sentenced Genaro García Luna, the former Secretary of Security of Mexico, to more than 38 years in prison, accused of protecting the Sinaloa cartel in exchange for money.