Drug lord El Chapo’s son pleads not guilty to US trafficking charges | Drug News

Ovidio Guzman was extradited from Mexico on Friday and faces multiple charges for alleged drug trafficking, including fentanyl.

Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzman, better known as El Chapo, has pleaded not guilty in a US court to several charges including drug trafficking and money laundering. money.

Guzman, one of El Chapo’s four sons, appeared in court in Chicago on Monday, days after his extradition from Mexico.

During a brief hearing under heavy security, Guzman, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and with his ankles shackled, listened to the proceedings through a Spanish interpreter, according to the Chicago Tribune.

He has pleaded not guilty to several drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Known as El Raton or The Mouse, he is accused of conspiring to ship cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana to the United States.

His father, El Chapo, was extradited from Mexico to the United States in 2017 and convicted two years later. He is currently serving a life sentence for drug trafficking and murder in a maximum security prison.

The United States said El Chapo’s four sons, known as The Chapitos or The Little Chapos, inherited control of his Sinaloa cartel after his conviction.

Three of the 66-year-old’s other sons have also been charged in the United States.

Ovidio Guzman was captured on January 5 in the town of Culiacan, north of Sinaloa.

After his arrest, cartel members set fire to vehicles and caused chaos, an echo of the mass shootings of 2019, when the younger Guzman was arrested but quickly released to avoid bloodshed.

Two of the six charges against Guzman in the United States carry a mandatory life sentence, prosecutors said, according to the Chicago Tribune. The United States has agreed not to carry out the death penalty in its extradition negotiations with Mexico, the daily said.

Guzman will be held pending trial and is scheduled to appear in court in November.