(CNN) – Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, appeared in a United States court on Monday, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. In his first appearance, three days after being extradited from Mexico on September 15, Guzmán López appeared in an orange uniform and handcuffs before the Dirksen Federal Court in downtown Chicago. Prosecutors told the court that the death penalty has been removed as an option for Ovidio Guzmán as part of extradition negotiations with Mexican authorities. They also added that two of the six charges that Guzmán López faces carry a mandatory life sentence. Guzmán López will be held without bail pending trial. Ovidio Guzmán. File image. On September 15, the US Department of Justice confirmed Guzmán López’s extradition through a statement: “As a result of the justice collaboration between the United States and Mexico, Ovidio Guzmán López, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was extradited to the United States. This action is the latest step in the Justice Department’s effort to attack all aspects of cartel operations.” Ovidio Guzmán López was flown to Chicago and landed last Friday, said Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, Assistant US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, to CNN. El Chapo’s son faces charges of conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana from Mexico and other locations to the United States. Previously, prosecutors said that from April 2008 to April 2018, both Ovidio Guzmán and his brother Joaquín Guzmán López conspired to distribute cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine from Mexico and other locations to be imported into the United States. Guzmán López also faces charges in Mexico for possession of Army-exclusive weapons and attempted murder. Guzmán López is known as “El Ratón” or “Ratón Nuevo”. On Monday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that in the case of Guzmán López’s extradition, “there was no request for protection, as I understand it, and the extradition proceeded.” The extradition of Ovidio Guzmán took place months after he remained detained in Mexico after his recapture in January 2023. That detention came after a failed – and very controversial – attempt to arrest him in 2019: the Mexican government launched an operation in Culiacán in which Guzmán López was detained. At that time, a bloody shootout took place between Mexican security forces and alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel. Mexican military personnel detained Ovidio Guzmán, but as the battle dragged on, the mission was suspended “to protect people’s lives,” López Obrador said at that time. Just over three years later, in January 2023, El Chapo’s son was captured again in Sinaloa. By that time, his father, Joaquín “Chapo” Guzmán, had already been captured in Mexico, extradited, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States. Ovidio Guzmán’s capture came after six months of reconnaissance work “in the area of influence of this criminal group where it was known that they carried out their illicit activities,” said Mexican Secretary of Defense General Luis Cresencio Sandoval. With information from Whitney Wild.
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2023-09-18 19:02:00
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June 15, 2024
