The son of former Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple charges linked to the world’s biggest illegal drug trade, prosecutors said.
Joaquín Guzmán López was arrested as part of a plan allegedly hatched by Washington without Mexico’s involvement, and was taken into custody in Texas last Thursday.
The judge in the case denied bail and remanded him into custody, ordering a case management hearing on September 30, the assistant US attorney’s office said in a statement to AFP.
Many details of the arrest operation are still unclear, including why cartel co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as “El Mayo,” was also taken into US custody.
US media quoted law enforcement sources as saying that Zambada was inadvertently smuggled across the Mexican border by Guzman Lopez, one of “El Chapo’s” four sons.
According to a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report released in May, the sons were engaged in an “internal battle” against their father’s former partner, Zambada.
Guzman Lopez was indicted by a federal grand jury on drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges, according to court documents previously released by prosecutors.
Guzman Lopez’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told reporters his client could face the death penalty in the case, broadcaster CNN reported. Lichtman did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
“There was no agreement between Joaquin Guzman and the government,” Lichtman told reporters in Chicago.
Zambada’s lawyer, Frank Perez, has said since Sunday that his client was “kidnapped” and taken to the United States against his will.
Zambada pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges before a federal judge in Texas on Friday, and is scheduled to appear again in court in El Paso on Thursday.
Guzmán López, 30, is one of “El Chapo’s” sons, collectively known as “Los Chapitos” or “the Little Chapos.”
“El Chapo” was convicted of drug charges in New York in 2019 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.
DEA chief Anne Milgram said Zambada’s arrest “strike at the heart of the gang that is responsible for most of the narcotics, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, that kill Americans from coast to coast.”