New York (AFP) – The son of the former Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a raft of charges linked to one of the world’s biggest illicit narcotics operations, prosecutors said. Joaquin Guzman Lopez was arrested in a scheme allegedly orchestrated by Washington without the involvement of Mexico, in which he was detained in Texas last Thursday. The judge in the case denied bail and remanded him in custody, ordering a case management hearing for September 30, the assistant US Attorney’s office said in a statement to AFP.
Many of the details of the arrest operation, in which co-founder of the cartel Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as “El Mayo,” was also taken into US custody, remain murky. US media have quoted law enforcement sources as saying that Zambada was unwittingly lured across the Mexico border by Guzman Lopez, one of “El Chapo’s” four sons. According to a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report released in May, the sons were engaged in an “internal battle” against Zambada, their father’s former partner.
Guzman Lopez was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons charges, according to court documents previously released by prosecutors. Broadcaster CNN reported that Guzman Lopez’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told reporters his client faces the death penalty in the case. Lichtman did not return an AFP request for comment. There was “no agreement between Joaquin Guzman and the government. Period,” Lichtman told reporters in Chicago.
Zambada’s lawyer, Frank Perez, has maintained since Sunday that his client was “kidnapped” and taken to the United States against his will. Zambada pleaded not guilty on Friday to drug trafficking and money laundering charges before a federal judge in Texas, and has another court appearance scheduled for Thursday in El Paso.
Guzman Lopez, aged in his 30s, is among the sons of “El Chapo” known collectively as “Los Chapitos,” or “The Little Chapos.” “El Chapo” was convicted of drug charges in New York in 2019 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison. DEA chief Anne Milgram said Zambada’s arrest “strikes at the heart of the cartel that is responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing Americans from coast to coast.”
© 2024 AFP
