The son of former Sinaloa drug cartel chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded not responsible Tuesday to a bunch of prices linked to one of many world’s largest illicit narcotics operations, prosecutors stated.
JoaquÃn Guzmán López was arrested in a scheme allegedly orchestrated by Washington with out Mexico’s participation, wherein he was detained in Texas final Thursday.
The decide within the case denied him bail and remanded him in custody, ordering a case administration listening to for September 30, the assistant federal prosecutor’s workplace stated in a press release to AFP.
Lots of the particulars of the arrest operation, which additionally took cartel co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, referred to as “El Mayo,” into U.S. custody, stay unclear.
US media have cited legislation enforcement sources as saying Zambada was unwittingly lured throughout the border into Mexico by Guzman Lopez, one in every of “El Chapo’s” 4 sons.
In accordance with a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report launched in Might, the sons had been waging an “inside battle” in opposition to Zambada, their father’s former associate.
Guzman Lopez was indicted by a federal grand jury on drug trafficking, cash laundering and weapons possession prices, in keeping with court docket paperwork beforehand launched by prosecutors.
CNN reported that Guzman Lopez’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, informed reporters that his consumer faces the dying penalty within the case. Lichtman didn’t reply to an AFP request for remark.
“There was no settlement between JoaquÃn Guzmán and the federal government. Interval,” Lichtman informed reporters in Chicago.
Zambada’s lawyer, Frank Pérez, has maintained since Sunday that his consumer was “kidnapped” and brought to the USA in opposition to his will.
Zambada pleaded not responsible to drug trafficking and cash laundering prices Friday earlier than a federal decide in Texas, and has one other court docket look scheduled for Thursday in El Paso.
Guzmán López, in his early 30s, is amongst “El Chapo’s” sons, collectively referred to as “Los Chapitos.”
“El Chapo” was convicted on drug prices in New York in 2019 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security jail.
DEA chief Anne Milgram stated Zambada’s arrest “strikes on the coronary heart of the cartel that’s liable for many of the medication, together with fentanyl and methamphetamine, that kill Individuals from coast to coast.”
