Overview

• Court records filed July 1 in the Southern District of New York show Guzmán López intends to plead guilty to fentanyl trafficking charges
• He faces separate drug trafficking and money laundering charges in the Northern District of Illinois and is due to change his plea there on July 9
• Prosecutors allege he led the Sinaloa cartel’s fentanyl division as part of the Chapitos faction alongside his brother
• Guzmán López was extradited from Mexico to Chicago in 2023 to face federal indictments spanning multiple districts
• His plea deal would mark the first by one of El Chapo’s sons and could bolster U.S. efforts to dismantle the cartel’s synthetic opioid network