The sons of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán reached an agreement with the U.S. justice system in exchange for their freedom.
The Guzmán López brothers, leaders of Los Chapitos, reached an agreement with the US justice system that allowed the release of Joaquín, El Güero, detained in El Paso, Texas, this August, while Ovidio, El Ratón, will remain in the prison where he has been held since February 2023.
The agreement implies that both Joaquín and Ovidio Guzmán will plead guilty and then cooperate with US authorities so that their respective sentences can be reduced.
This news comes just days before Ovidio Guzmán appears before the judge who has been handling his case since he was arrested in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in December 2022.
MILENIO has learned that both sons of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán are working on a plea agreement with the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division so that the charges against them will also be dismissed and they will not go to trial.
Joaquín, El Güero, Guzmán is currently being guarded by U.S. Marshals Service agents, as part of an agreement that included the kidnapping and delivery of Ismael, El Mayo, Zambada García into the hands of federal authorities.
Chapitos agreed to hand over El Mayo
Joaquín Guzmán López was the one who tricked and kidnapped Ismael Zambada García, El Mayo, in Mexico, and then put him on a plane against his will to take them both to New Mexico, where they were in the hands of U.S. authorities.
According to Joaquín El Güero’s file, he left the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. prison authority, on October 16; however, MILENIO found out that he is still in the custody of the U.S. government waiting to sign a plea agreement that will open the door to cooperation.
In a similar negotiation scheme is Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, El Nini, who was head of security for Los Chapitos and who has already managed to get his wife relocated to the United States.
The investigations against the Sinaloa cartel have been directed and carried out by different U.S. agencies dedicated to the fight against drug trafficking, such as the Transnational Crime Investigations Unit (TCIU), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA):
It was in fact the FBI who negotiated with El Güero the operation so that Zambada García would remain in their custody.
Source: Milenio