On Dec. 1 Joaquín Guzmán López, also known as "El Güero," pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise as a member of Los Chapitos.
Image via U.S. Department of Homeland Security
For a second time this year, a son of infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán pleaded guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges. It was the case of Joaquin Guzmán López, who followed the footsteps of his brother Ovidio Guzmán López, who had reached a plea deal with U.S. authorities in July.
After months of negotiations and multiple postponements to his hearing, Guzmán López, also known as "El Güero," pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise as a member of Los Chapitos, the Sinaloa Cartel faction led by other sons of El Chapo, who have run the family business since their father's arrest in 2016.
As part of his plea deal, El Güero admitted to helping oversee the production and smuggling of large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the United States, The Associated Press reported.
El Güero was arrested in July 2024 alongside Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada after they arrived in the U.S. on a private plane as part of a plan to hand his godfather over to U.S. authorities.
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According to The Chicago Tribune, Guzmán López also admitted for the first time that he lured Zambada into his own kidnapping by claiming he needed help settling a dispute. He brought Zambada to a private room where he had secretly removed a floor-to-ceiling window. At that point, several men entered the room, zip-tied Zambada and put a bag over his head. He was then loaded into a pickup truck and driven to a nearby airstrip, where he was forced onto a private plane with Guzmán López, according to the plea agreement. Guzmán López gave him a drink laced with a sedative before the flight to New Mexico, where both were taken into custody by U.S. authorities.
During the hearing, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ordered that El Güero return to court on June 1, 2026, for a status hearing prior to sentencing. His defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, commended both U.S. and Mexican authorities.
"The government has been very fair with Joaquín thus far," he told reporters after the court hearing. "I do appreciate the fact that the Mexican government didn't interfere."
Similarly to El Güero, his brother Ovidio "El Ratón" Guzmán pleaded guilty to four drug-related charges in Chicago earlier this year as part of a deal that included drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel.
Weeks after Ovidio's guilty plea, it was Zambada's turn to appear before a Brooklyn federal court, where he pleaded guilty to federal charges related to violent drug trafficking he led for years alongside El Chapo for the Sinaloa Cartel.
"I acknowledge the great damage that drugs have caused in the U.S., Mexico and elsewhere," Zambada said on Aug. 25. "I take all responsibility and ask for the forgiveness of all those affected by my actions."
In another part of the hearing, El Mayo estimated he trafficked at least 1.5 million kilos of cocaine during his career, most of which went to the U.S.
"The organization I led promoted corruption in my home country by paying police, military commanders and politicians, which allowed us to operate freely. It goes back to the very beginning when I was a young man starting out and continued for all those years," he added.
The arrest of El Güero and El Mayo in July 2024 triggered an internal war between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, with Los Chapitos and La Mayiza fighting for control of the criminal organization.
Since turf wars erupted in Sinaloa in September 2024, Mexican news outlet Noroeste reports that as of Nov. 30, 2025, 2,408 people have been killed and 2,829 have been kidnapped across the state.
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Tags: Los Chapitos, El Chapo Guzman, Mexico, Sinaloa, Sinaloa Cartel, United States, Drug cartels