Mexico set to be torn apart as drug kingpin El Chapo's son prepares to tell US prosecutors 'everything he knows'
Joaquín ' El Chapo ' Guzmán's son, Ovidio Guzmán López pleaded guilty to two counts of drug conspiracy and two counts of knowingly engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise before a federal judge in Chicago last Friday.
The 35-year-old jailed boss, who oversaw the Sinaloa Cartel's 'Los Chapitos' faction, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors who have accused him of distributing drugs and running a criminal enterprise.
New York and Illinois federal prosecutors alleged that Guzmán López and his three brothers assumed control of the Sinaloa Cartel once El Chapo was arrested in Mexico in 2016 and then extradited in 2019 to the United States, where he is serving a life sentence at a Colorado super maximum-security prison.
The indictments indicated that the transnational drug trafficking organization made hundreds of millions by shipping, producing, and trafficking fentanyl to the United States.
Now Guzmán López's mea-culpa could very well open a Pandora's box into the Sinaloa Cartel's dealings with former and current law enforcement and government officials back home in Mexico.
His high-profile lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman slammed the Mexican government while talking to reporters after leaving the courtroom.
'It's not so much of a surprise that somehow, for 40 years, the Mexican government, Mexican law enforcement, did nothing to capture who was probably the biggest drug dealer, perhaps in the history of the world,' he said.
Lichtman was referring to Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, who co-founded the cartel with El Chapo and had never been arrested until El Chapo's also jailed son, Joaquín Guzmán López, set him up and flew him across the border to Texas, where he turned himself in and El Mayo was captured.
'So what I would say to Pres. Sheinbaum is: perhaps she should look to her predecessors in the president's office and try to figure out why that happened, why there was never any effort to arrest,' the famous criminal lawyer said. 'I don't even know if Zambada has been charged in Mexico.'
In an X post on Friday night, Lichtman appeared to take another swipe at Sheinbaum for reportedly shielding criminal organizations.
'Apparently the president of Mexico is displeased with my truthful comments about her corrupt office and government,' Lichtman wrote.
'She can call as many hastily convened press conferences as she likes, but the people of Mexico (and myself) know that she acts more as the public relations arm of a drug trafficking organization than as the honest leader that the Mexican people deserve. I'll have more to say on this shortly.'
The war of words spilled over to Tuesday when Sheinbaum filed a defamation law suit against Lichtman.
'I'm not going to establish a dialogue with a lawyer for [a] narco-trafficker,' Sheinbaum said during a press conference.
Iván Guzmán Salazar (pictured), is one of El Chapo's sons now leading one-half of the Sinaloa Cartel. The DEA is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction
The Drug Enforcement Administration is offering a $10 million reward for information that leads to the arrest and/or conviction of Jesús Guzmán Salazar
El Chapo's two other sons, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, who are both wanted by the United States government, have hired Lichtman, who has over three decades of experience as a lawyer.
Retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent and chief of operations Ray Donovan told DailyMail.com that Ovidio's and Joaquín's cooperation could allow for the Mexican government to reorganize itself.
'I think with the potential that Ovidio, Joaquin and others provide information on corrupt politicians and corrupt officials, is an opportunity for Mexico to reset and Sheinbaum is the president to do that,' said Donovan, who took down El Chapo
'So, you can look at it like this is very good, very bad for her party or you can look at it as, "I'm in control now, we want to be strong partners and we want to take Mexico forward not backwards."'
'This is an opportunity for her to do that. Now, the actions she has taken I think have been substantial. And clearly she is very astute, she is different from other presidents, he added.
'The good news about Claudia Sheinbaum, besides the fact that she is highly intelligent, I think that the corruption piece that often surrounds politicians, she doesn't have that.
'So, this is an opportunity to really take Mexico forward under her leadership and partnership with the United States. Regardless of if charges were to come out against politicians, she's taking concrete action forward and I think it's going to be great. I see her as a really, influential leader in the Western Hemisphere. It's not a bad thing.'
Ovidio Guzmán López's decision to accept responsibility for his wrongdoing in court last Friday came just two months after 17 family members, including his mother, sister, wife and children, were met by U.S. federal agents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego and brought across the border.
The fact that his brother was able to lure El Mayo made cooperating with the U.S. government easier.
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