Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo, who is in prison in the US, pleaded guilty today to drug trafficking and participation in a criminal organization as part of a plea agreement with US authorities, Agence France-Presse reported.
The agency notes that this plea agreement was reached during a court hearing in Chicago.
As part of the plea agreement, the text of which was seen by AFP, Joaquín Guzmán López could receive at least 10 years in prison for the charge related to his participation in a criminal organization.
As for the drug trafficking charge, for which he risks life in prison, prosecutors have agreed that the judge will impose a lighter sentence on him depending on the degree of his cooperation with justice.
In return, El Chapo's son has committed to "cooperate fully and sincerely in all cases in which he is summoned" by American justice, providing "a full and credible" information and testimony.
One of his brothers, Ovidio Guzmán López, already pleaded guilty last July to similar charges. The two are accused, along with two other brothers who are still wanted, of continuing the activities of their father, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, a former boss of the "Sinaloa" cartel.
Joaquín Guzmán López and another longtime leader of the "Sinaloa", Ismael Zambada, known as El Mayo, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after landing in the United States on a private jet. Both pleaded "not guilty" to various charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms possession.
Following their dramatic capture, two factions of the "Sinaloa" cartel entered into bloody clashes.
Sixty-eight-year-old El Chapo is serving a life sentence in one of the most secure prisons in the United States, in the state of Colorado, AFP reports.