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The son of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has indicated he plans to plead guilty in a US federal court to charges including drug trafficking, money laundering, and weapons possession.
Getting into it: According to court records, Joaquín Guzmán López (also known as “El Güero”) will formally change his plea from not guilty to guilty during a scheduled hearing in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The plea change, set for December 1 at 1:30 pm, comes after months of indications that federal prosecutors and defense attorneys were working toward a negotiated resolution. His case had been postponed multiple times (first from July to September, then again to November, and finally to December) as both sides sought to finalize the terms of a plea agreement.
Guzmán López, who was apprehended in July 2024 in El Paso, Texas, faces a series of serious federal charges. These include conspiracy to traffic narcotics, engage in money laundering operations, and illegal use and possession of firearms all tied to his alleged leadership role in the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations. As part of the Los Chapitos faction (a subgroup led by El Chapo’s sons), he helped maintain the cartel’s dominance following his father’s capture and life sentence in 2019. He was arrested alongside Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, another high-ranking cartel figure, under controversial circumstances that have since led to infighting within the cartel.
Joaquín Guzmán López is not the only family member facing charges in the US. His brother, Ovidio Guzmán López (known as “El Ratón”), was extradited from Mexico in 2023 and pleaded guilty in July 2025 to drug trafficking, criminal enterprise, and money laundering charges. Like Joaquín, Ovidio initially denied the allegations before ultimately agreeing to a plea deal with prosecutors. Another key figure, Ismael Zambada, also reversed his plea in August and admitted to large-scale drug trafficking and systemic corruption, including paying off police and military officials.
Despite these high-profile arrests, the US is still pursuing two of Joaquín Guzmán López’s brothers: Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar. Both have been indicted on drug trafficking charges but remain fugitives. In June, US authorities increased the reward for information leading to their capture to $10 million each and imposed additional sanctions linked to fentanyl trafficking operations.
