A son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” pleaded guilty in July 2025 to drug trafficking charges in the United States, becoming the first of the drug lord’s sons to enter a plea deal. Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzmán López and his brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, ran a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. They became known locally as the “Chapitos,” or “little Chapos,” and U.S. federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send staggering quantities of fentanyl into the U.S.
As part of a plea agreement, Ovidio Guzmán López admitted to helping oversee the production and smuggling of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the U.S., fueling a crisis that has contributed to tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually. Guzmán López also pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Guzmán López’s sentencing was postponed while he cooperates with authorities. Whether he avoids a life sentence depends on whether authorities say he has met the terms of the agreement.
Joaquín Guzmán López, meanwhile, pleaded guilty December 1, 2025, to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise. With the plea deal, his attorney said, he is expected to avoid life in prison.
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and former assistant U.S. attorney, said that Ovidio Guzmán López, by pleading guilty, may have “saved other family members … in this way, he has some control over who he’s cooperating against and what the world will know about that cooperation.” Levenson called the plea change a big step for the U.S. government and said Ovidio Guzmán López could provide “a road map of how to identify members of the cartel.”