Four of El Chapo Guzman’s sons charged for trafficking fentanyl

Attorney General Merrick Garland announces the charges against ‘Los Chapitos,’ the sons of El Chapo Guzman who took over his drug cartel empire (Picture: AP)

Four sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman were charged in the United States for their role in running a massive fentanyl smuggling operation.

The sweeping indictment unsealed on Friday announced charges against 28 people in Mexico, China, and Guatemala for orchestrating what Attorney General Merrick Garland called the ‘largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world.’

The indictment took aim at the Sinaloa Cartel, the criminal organization based in central Mexico made famous by its brutal leader ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.

The US named four sons of El Chapo, frequently referred to as ‘Los Chapitos,’ as the primary leaders who took the reigns of the Sinaloa Cartel after his imprisonment.

Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, 40, allegedly took over leadership of his father’s cartel after his imprisonment (Picture: Handout)

Jesus Alfredo Guzman-Salazar, also known as Alfredillo, 37, is also allegedly leading the Sinaloa Cartel (Picture: DEA)

Three sons, Jesus Alfredo Guzman-Salazar, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman-Salazar, and Joaquin Guzman-Lopez, are still running the organization in Mexico.

The fourth son, Ovidio Guzman-Lopez, was arrested in Culiacan on January 5. The US is currently extraditing him from Mexico.

The Justice Department alleges that El Chapo’s sons pushed the Sinaloa Cartel into the fentanyl market after their father’s extradition to the United States.

‘We’re going after the entire network, from precursors, to importation into Mexico, to the manufacturer, to the weapons, to the money launderers, to the distribution in the United States,’ Garland said.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 33, is the only one of ‘Los Chapitos’ in police custody (Picture: FBI/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 37, is another leader of ‘Los Chapitos’ (Picture: US Department of State)

The Attorney General said that the cartel created a complex supply chain, which begins with chemical companies in China that manufacture ‘precursor chemicals’ that are imported to Mexico and Guatemala.

Those precursor chemicals are then taken to illicit drug labs in Mexico, where the cartel manufactures fentanyl – the dangerous synthetic opioid responsible for fueling the overdose epidemic in the United States.

The cartels then smuggle the drug over the US-Mexico border, where they sell it to drug dealers.

‘Before resale, those criminal organizations often mix fentanyl powder into other drugs, such as cocaine and heroin,’ Garland said. ‘They also often sell fentanyl pills as counterfeit prescription pain medicine. As a result, many Americans are unaware that they are purchasing and being poisoned by fentanyl.’

The moment National Guardsmen in Mexico first arrested Ovidio Guzman in 2019. His arrest lead to a violent cartel uprising known as the ‘Battle of Culiacan’ (Picture: HO/CEPROPIE/AFP via Getty Images)

Cartel fighters set fire to burning vehicles after Ovidio Guzman’s capture on January 5 in Culiacan, Sinaloa (Picture: via REUTERS)

‘The Sinaloa Cartel operates without respect for human rights, for human life, or the rule of law,’ Garland said. According to the Attorney General, this includes torturing prisoners, testing new batches of fentanyl on captives, and even feeding their victims to tigers.

In one instance, one defendant killed a captive woman after he ‘injected her repeatedly with fentanyl until she overdosed and died,’ Garland said.

‘After an addict died testing a batch of the cartel’s fentanyl, one of the defendants sent the batch to the United States anyway,’ Garland said.

‘They know that they’re poisoning and killing Americans,’ US Drug Enforcement Agency Chief Anne Milgram said. ‘They just don’t care because they make billions of dollars doing it. Their greed is shocking and without bounds.’

Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman lead the Sinaloa Cartel until his arrest and subsequent conviction in the United States in 2019 (Picture: AP)

The cartel has also treated Mexican law enforcement and innocent civilians in similar ways.

For example, after Ovidio Guzman was first arrested by the Mexican National Guard in 2019, cartel members began waging the ‘Battle of Culiacan’ against police officers and military servicemembers.

Cartel fighters shot into apartment buildings housing military families and took hostages, forcing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to order Ovidio’s release to prevent further loss of life.

Out of the 28 individual defendants charged on Friday, only eight are in law enforcement custody. The US is offering rewards for the capture of the other defendants, including a $10million bounty for the other Chapitos.

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