Joaquin Guzman Lopez, Son of "El Chapo," Pleads Guilty Outlining the Kidnapping of "El Mayo" Zambada

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Several gunmen entered through a window opening, of which the glass had already been removed in preparation to ambush Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on July 25, 2024. "El Mayo" was then cuffed, and his head was covered before being pulled through the opening and loaded into the back of a pickup truck and taken to a private jet on a nearby runway. 

These are some of the new details according the plea hearing of one of the sons of his former Sinaloa cartel partner Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán who abducted him.

Joaquín Guzmán López, the 39-year-old son of "El Chapo," pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and running a Continuing Criminal Enterprise alongside his father and then brothers in federal court in Chicago. He also pleaded guilty to a count of international kidnapping.

"What is your name?" Judge Johnson asked.

"Joaquín Guzmán López," he replied.

"How old are you?"

39 years old, replied "El Güero," as he was known within the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

"Are you sure?" the judge said sarcastically, amid a small laugh that created a rather relaxed atmosphere for the rest of the hearing.

"What did you do before you came here?" the judge asked.

"Drug trafficking," El Chapo's son said without hesitation. Again, laughter erupted from the prosecutors, the marshals, the judge, and the public.

Kidnapping of El Mayo

Andrew Erskine, a prosecutor representing the US government, said on Monday the kidnapping of an 'unnamed individual' was part of an attempt to show cooperation with Washington, which he said did not sanction those actions. He also said Guzmán López would not receive cooperation credit because of that.

In the agreement, Guzman explicitly acknowledges that, "the United States government did not request, induce, sanction, approve, or condone the kidnapping." This wording seems to be carefully chosen and does not mention the US having or not having any predisposed knowledge of the deal or kidnapping ahead of time.

Erskine described the alleged kidnapping in court, saying Guzmán López had the glass from a floor-to-ceiling window removed from a room ahead of the meeting with the unnamed person, mentioned only as 'Individual A.'

Guzmán López allegedly had others enter through the open window, seize the individual, put a bag over his head and take him to a plane. Onboard, he was zip-tied and given sedatives before the plane landed at a New Mexico airport near the border with Texas.

Mexico’s then president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who suspected the US government was behind the operation. Washington denied involvement from the outset, but experts thought it would be virtually impossible to pull off without US authorities having some knowledge.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office said it was studying the possibility of bringing treason charges against Guzmán López or whoever else aided in the plot.

The arrests set off a bloody fight in Sinaloa among their respective cartel factions for control of the business, violence that López Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, is still dealing with.

"El Mayo" Zambada in his letter, released by his lawyer days after he first appeared in US court said Guzmán López had called him to a meeting on the outskirts of Sinaloa state’s capital, Culiacán. Allegedly it was to help settle a dispute between the Governor of Sinaloa and political leader Héctor Cuén Ojeda. 

He said when he arrived there were a lot of armed men in green military uniforms, who he assumed were gunmen for Los Chapitos.

Ojeda, a political rival of Governor Rocha and former head of Sinaloa political parties was shot and brought to the hospital later that night following a failed attempt to cover the true cause of his death with a gas station carjacking.

On the plane that landed in New Mexico were only the pilot, Zambada and Guzmán López. The pilot is not named in the agreement either and was not arrested at the airport when Zambada and Guzmán were taken into custody.

“Two down, two to go,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California in response to the guilty plea.

Guzman Lopez and his three brothers (Ivan and Jesus Alfredo are his half-brothers), collectively known as “Los Chapitos,” assumed leadership roles of the Sinaloa Cartel following El Chapo’s arrest in 2016 and subsequent conviction in the Eastern District of New York.

US prosecutor Erskine confirmed that the defendant was cooperating with authorities as a cooperating witness and that, thanks to this, the US prosecution was considering requesting a reduced sentence to avoid a life sentence. In this case, like his brother Ovidio, Joaquín had become a cooperating witness as well.

With the plea deal, Guzmán López’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he is expected to avoid life in prison. His brother Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who pleaded guilty back in July is said to have been included as part of the plot to bring "El Mayo" to the US to get a better deal as he was moved out of BOP custody and into the US Marshal's protective custody just days before the kidnapping took place.

Earlier this year, 17 family members of the two brothers made their way across the US border and were escorted in by US authorities.

But his cooperation didn't stop Erskine from airing the suspect's dirty laundry: shipments with tons of drugs, transport networks in Central and South America, Mexico, the United States, and Canada, cross-border tunnels, and, of course, the high-profile kidnapping.

Guzman Lopez coordinated the transportation of drugs and precursor chemicals for the manufacture of drugs into Mexico, and the transportation of those drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, to the United States border, at times in shipments of hundreds or thousands of kilograms. He used a network of couriers affiliated with the cartel to smuggle the drugs into the United States using vehicles, rail cars, tunnels, aircraft, submersible vessels, and other means according to his plea.

Sources DOJ, Milenio

Categories: El Chapo, El Mayo, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, Los Chapitos, sinaloa cartel