Under pressure and close to a deal with the United States: The Chapo Guzmán family’s multiple legal fronts

The Guzmán family, the ruling dynasty of drug trafficking in Sinaloa, is weakening under the judicial siege of the United States. The recent crossing of 17 family members into U.S. territory, along with the imminent guilty plea of the youngest son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán— the family patriarch, who is serving a life sentence in the U.S. —signals their decline.

The plea deal being negotiated by Ovidio Guzmán, known as “El Ratón,” with U.S. prosecutors could shake the foundations of drug trafficking in Mexico, depending on what he reveals. Meanwhile, his two half-brothers, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, remain entangled in the ongoing conflict in Sinaloa, facing growing pressure after the DEA increased its multimillion-dollar reward for information leading to their capture.

All eyes are now on the content of El Ratón’s deal with prosecutors. With a dozen charges against him — mostly for trafficking fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine — his best option is to trade the information he holds, betray former allies, and expose the inner workings of Mexico’s drug trade in exchange for a reduced sentence. The first step in that strategy was to plead guilty, as his attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, previously indicated — and as confirmed by Guzmán himself when he signed his initial guilty plea on Monday.

If Ovidio’s extradition marked the end of one chapter for the family in Mexico, the discreet crossing of 17 relatives through the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana marks the beginning of another. Mexico’s Security Secretary, Omar García Harfuch, said the trip was an “obvious” result of a negotiation. “It’s an agreement between a defendant and the authorities,” he said in a radio interview. “It’s clear that if his family is leaving now, it’s because of that negotiation,” he added.

Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero explained that the relatives who left the country are not facing any legal proceedings in Mexico. “We are also not aware of any legal action against them in the United States. They simply acted freely, crossed the border, and had a meeting with U.S. federal authorities,” he said.

Lichtman told CNN that the relocation of his client’s family is not part of the plea deal. However, the outlet also cited a U.S. government source claiming that the relatives are willing to provide information in exchange for entry into the witness protection program.

Griselda López Pérez, Ovidio’s mother, is one of the family members now in U.S. territory. In 2010, Mexico’s Attorney General Office arrested her during a raid on her home in Culiacán, following a financial investigation that found she was receiving income far exceeding what she had reported to the Federal Taxpayer Registry. After giving her statement to Mexican authorities, she was released. Two years later, the U.S. Treasury Department added her to its blacklist for helping El Chapo evade justice and for her role in her husband’s drug trafficking operations. “Griselda Lopez Perez provides material support to the drug trafficking activities of her husband,” the department said in a statement at the time.

López is also the mother of Joaquín Guzmán López, known as “El Güero Moreno.” In July 2024, El Güero was allegedly involved in one of the most controversial events in recent Mexican drug trafficking history. He organized a meeting in Culiacán and invited his godfather, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, his father’s longtime associate — a veteran criminal who had managed to stay out of prison during a half-century-long career. But the meeting was actually a trap. With help from his henchmen, Guzmán López allegedly kidnapped his godfather and flew him across the border in a small plane. For U.S. authorities, Zambada was one of the most sought-after trophies.

Both landed in El Paso, Texas, and were arrested by DEA and FBI agents. The leading theory is that Joaquín turned in El Mayo in exchange for a deal to help his brother Ovidio. Now, Joaquín — detained in the same Chicago prison as Ovidio — is also negotiating a plea agreement with prosecutors, through attorney Lichtman. So far, he has pleaded not guilty to the five federal drug trafficking charges against him, and it has been confirmed that he will not face the death penalty.

The other two sons of El Chapo wanted by Washington and still fugitives are Jesús Alfredo and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, children of El Chapo’s first wife, María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández, and half-brothers to Ovidio and Joaquín. A $10 million reward is being offered for each of them. They continue to lead the cartel and wage war against El Mayo’s loyalists in Sinaloa. They are among the last big trophies sought by the U.S. government, which has frozen their companies and assets in an effort to disrupt the production and distribution of fentanyl, for which they stand accused.

The U.S. Treasury Department has identified Iván Archivaldo, also known as “El Chapito,” as the top leader of Los Chapitos, the criminal faction formed by El Chapo’s descendants. He came close to being captured in a military operation in February, according to The Wall Street Journal in a May report. The outlet said that the oldest Guzmán brother was cornered in a house in Culiacán, but, as his father did for years to evade justice, he escaped through a hidden bathroom tunnel connected to other parts of the city.

That same week, however, the Mexican Army did arrest two of Iván’s trusted men and key cartel operatives: José Ángel Canobbio, alias “El Güerito,” and Kevin Alonso Gil, alias “El 200.” These arrests add to the growing list of top Sinaloa Cartel figures captured since Ovidio’s extradition, including three men close to Aureliano Guzmán Loera, “El Guano,” El Chapo’s older brother, who were detained a year ago.

Jesús Alfredo Guzmán López, known as “Alfredillo,” is also on the DEA’s most-wanted list. The U.S. Treasury Department identifies him as Iván’s lieutenant, responsible for torturing rivals to extract information about infiltrations into the Sinaloa territory dominated by Los Chapitos.

Pressure is mounting on the two remaining fugitive sons of El Chapo still in Mexico, amid a war that claims new lives each week due to clashes between rival factions. The resolution of the conflict between drug groups in Sinaloa — and the revelations Ovidio and Joaquín may make from prison — could upend the criminal landscape in Mexico and shed light on how far the tentacles of organized crime reach into the country’s political, business, and military spheres.

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