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.