El Chapo’s son extradited to the US for drug trafficking charges

FILE - This frame grab from video, provided by the Mexican government, shows Ovidio Guzman Lopez being detained in Culiacan, Mexico, Oct. 17, 2019. Ovidio's brothers, Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, are the lead defendants among 23 associates charged with running a criminal enterprise, fentanyl trafficking, among other things, in a New York indictment unsealed April 14, 2023 in Manhattan, while Ovidio, alias “the Mouse,” is facing similar charges in another indictment in the same district. Another brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, is charged in the Northern District of Illinois. (CEPROPIE via AP File)
This frame grab from video, provided by the Mexican government, shows Ovidio Guzman Lopez being detained in Culiacan, Mexico, Oct. 17, 2019. (CEPROPIE via AP File)

The son of infamous Mexican cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was extradited to the U.S. on Friday to face drug trafficking charges, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced.

Ovidio Guzmán López faces charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and other violent crimes. He was arrested by Mexican authorities in January and indicted on U.S. charges in April.

Guzmán López was charged alongside two of his brothers, neither of whom are in custody. The trio are believed to be the more violent sect of the Sinaloa cartel and have taken over leadership of the group after their father’s arrest.

“The extradition of López is testament to the significance of the ongoing cooperation between the American and Mexican governments on countering narcotics and other vital challenges, and we thank our Mexican counterparts for their partnership in working to safeguard our peoples from violent criminals,” DHS advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall said in a statement Friday.

The Sinaloa cartel is recognized as one of the driving forces bringing illegal fentanyl to the United States through Mexico. 

“This action is the most recent step in the Justice Department’s effort to attack every aspect of the cartel’s operations,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “The fight against the cartels has involved incredible courage by United States law enforcement and Mexican law enforcement and military service members, many of whom have given their lives in the pursuit of justice.”

Between 2019 and 2021, fatal overdoses increased by approximately 94 percent, with an estimated 196 Americans dying each day from fentanyl, the Justice Department said in April.

Fentanyl seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have increased dramatically in recent years, according to CBP data. The total amount of fentanyl seized in 2020 was surpassed in the first two months of the 2023 fiscal year.

El Chapo was convicted in 2019 of running an international drug empire and smuggling operation. He had previously escaped a Mexican high security prison in 2001 and another in 2015.

He was captured again in 2016 and extradited to the U.S., where he now is serving a life sentence without parole in the country’s most secure supermax prison in Colorado.

Tags Department of Homeland Security EL CHAPO extradition fentanyl Joaquin Guzman Merrick Garland

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.