Ovidio Guzman was briefly arrested in Culiacan in the northern state of Sinaloa in 2019.
Chicago:
Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of jailed Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, pleaded not guilty in federal court in Chicago on Monday to U.S. fentanyl trafficking charges, according to the Chicago Tribune, three days after his extradition from Mexico.
Guzman, 33, is one of four sons of El Chapo, known as ‘Los Chapitos’, who inherited their father’s human trafficking empire following his conviction on US murder and drug charges in 2019. ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is serving a life sentence of maximum security prison in Colorado.
U.S. officials said the arrest and extradition of Ovidio Guzman marks a major victory in the Biden administration’s campaign to stem the deadly flow of fentanyl across the southern border.
Guzman was briefly arrested in 2019 in Culiacan in the northern state of Sinaloa. But President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered him released after hundreds of Sinaloa cartel gunmen overwhelmed security forces in the city.
Guzman was captured again in January after a fierce gun battle. The US requested his extradition in February.
Fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid, is responsible for nearly 200 U.S. deaths a day, a toll that has strained U.S.-Mexico relations and put domestic pressure on the Biden administration to curb the spread of the deadly drug to delay.
According to U.S. officials, the Sinaloa Cartel is primarily responsible for the production and export of fentanyl across the border.
In court filings, prosecutors say Ovidio Guzman and his brothers ran a massive international smuggling operation that transported drugs into the U.S. using planes, submarines, fishing boats and rail cars, and reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
The State Department has offered rewards worth millions of dollars for information leading to the arrest of the Guzman brothers.
“El Chapo” Guzman rose to prominence at the helm of the Sinaloa Cartel, adding to his infamy by escaping from Mexican prisons not once but twice. He was extradited to the US in 2017 and convicted in federal court in Brooklyn.
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