Ovidio Guzmán, the 35-year-old son of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, pleaded guilty to four charges on Friday. He played a central role in a criminal organization that smuggled fentanyl into the United States.
Guzmán appeared in court in Chicago on Friday. He admitted to being guilty of drug trafficking and participating in a criminal organization. He could be sentenced to life in prison.
According to the US Department of Justice, Guzmán played a leading role in a network that produced and smuggled fentanyl on a large scale into the US. That drug claims tens of thousands of lives every year. In 2023, almost two hundred Americans died every day from a fentanyl overdose.
Guzmán, also known as ‘El Ratón’, was extradited by Mexico in September 2023. A Mexican police officer who helped with the arrest was shot dead last month in Culiacán. According to Sky News, he was shot at in a parking garage at a shopping center. In thirty seconds, 155 bullets were reportedly fired at him.
Guzmán’s brother, Joaquin Guzmán, has also been charged. He was arrested in El Paso in July 2024 along with another suspect. Ovidio and Joaquin’s father, ‘El Chapo’, has been serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado since 2019.