Son of 'El Chapo' and one other Sinaloa Cartel chief arrested in Texas

The son of jailed Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, and one other cartel chief have been arrested Thursday in El Paso, Texas, U.S. Legal professional Common Merrick Garland mentioned.

Joaquín Guzmán Lopez and Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia are dealing with “a number of costs” in reference to the Mexico-based felony group, “together with its lethal fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” Garland said in a statement.

The crime kingpin referred to as “El Chapo” was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the US, and is serving a sentence of life plus 30 years that was handed down in New York in 2019.

The Sinaloa Cartel, in addition to the Jalisco Cartel, “are on the coronary heart” of the artificial drug disaster in the US, which incorporates fentanyl and methamphetamine, the Drug Enforcement Administration mentioned in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment.

“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug risk our nation has ever confronted, and the Justice Division is not going to relaxation till each single cartel chief, member, and affiliate accountable for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Garland mentioned within the assertion.

One other son of “El Chapo,” Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, who was additionally an alleged cartel chief, was arrested in Mexico in January 2023 and has been extradited to the U.S. to face drug and cash laundering costs. He pleaded not guilty in September of that yr.

Joaquín Guzmán Lopez and Ovidio Guzmán Lopez were indicted by the U.S. federal grand jury in 2018 on costs that alleged a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the U.S. 

Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, and two different sons of “El Chapo” have been additionally indicted by a federal grand jury in 2023, the Justice Division said at the time.

The 2 different sons, Ivan Guzmán Salazar and Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, haven’t been apprehended. The 4 sons are referred to as the “Chapitos,” federal officials said, they usually took over their father’s drug trafficking networks and his faction of the cartel.

There are presently 4 felony organizations that make up the Sinaloa Cartel, the Drug Enforcement Administration says, together with the “Los Chapitos” that was run by the 4 “El Chapo” sons.

The brothers promoted making fentanyl a bigger a part of the cartel’s enterprise, the DEA mentioned within the 2024 report.

“The Sinaloa Cartel has been producing bulk portions of fentanyl since at the least 2012, however the Chapitos faction is accountable for pushing the significance of fentanyl to the cartel’s ‘backside line,'” the report says. 

There have been an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths within the U.S. final yr, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and most of these — an estimated 74,702 — have been from artificial opioids, which incorporates fentanyl. The second-most was from psychostimulants like methamphetamine, with an estimated 36,251 deaths, it mentioned.

The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels make fentanyl in labs in Mexico after which ship it into the U.S., the DEA mentioned on this yr’s report.

Each cartels in 2023 allegedly ordered subordinates to cease trafficking in fentanyl, and the “Chapitos” made a public present about it, however the DEA concluded concluded that “the ban might be a public relations stunt.”

“All through 2023, fentanyl was seized on the border in equal or larger portions as in earlier years, and no DEA subject workplace reported that fentanyl is much less out there or dearer, both of which might level to a lower within the provide,” the company mentioned