The dome of the Sinaloa Cartel is shaking again: Joaquin Guzman LopezNicknamed “El Guero” and son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, he will appear Monday in federal court in Chicago to file a complaint against him. Admit your guilt On at least one drug smuggling charge. This is a crucial turning point in a file that is progressing in light of his father, who is sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States.
Mexican media revealed the announcement on Friday after the publication of court documents confirming that Guzman Lopez It would change his initial plea of innocence. A hearing has been set for December 1 at 1:30 p.min the middle of the long Thanksgiving weekend, when there is almost no official activity.
The procedure has been postponed three times since July: first to September 15, then to November 13, and finally to the current date. Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman delayed the hearing while details of the agreement are refined which, unlike other processes, is still being treated confidentially.
Guzman Lopez faces charges of drug trafficking, organized crime, and use of firearms, and has been classified as One of the leaders of Los ChapitosIt is the violent faction that resumed Chapo’s operations after his extradition to the United States in 2017.
His situation became more complicated after that His arrest in July 2024When he landed in Texas on a small plane with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the cartel’s co-founder and former ally. Zambada later announced that he had been deceived about the destination of the flight and that Guzmán López himself had turned him over to North American authorities. This incident sparked an internal war that has not subsided yet.
Since then, clashes between Los Chapitos and the Mayo faction in northern Mexico have multiplied, leaving a horrific toll: more than 1,200 dead and nearly 1,400 missing, according to official figures.
Joaquin’s brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, also fell months ago: In July, he pleaded guilty to four drug trafficking charges in a Chicago court, in an agreement whose terms were also not disclosed. Shortly after, in August, Mayo Zambada himself accepted drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges in New York.
The background to all these maneuvers is the same: pressure from Washington to dismantle the structure that is fueling the fentanyl epidemic. The US authorities accuse the Sinaloa Cartel of flooding its territory with this synthetic drug, which causes tens of thousands of deaths from overdose every year, and has become a critical point of contention between Mexico and the United States.