The son of notorious drug lord “El Chapo” has appeared in courtroom for the primary time since being extradited to the US from Mexico.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez denied drug and cash laundering when he appeared at a Chicago courtroom on Monday – three days after he was dropped at the US.
Guzman Lopez, 33, and his three brothers – collectively often called “Los Chapitos” – inherited their father’s empire after he was convicted of homicide and drug fees in 2019.
Joaquin Guzman, generally often called El Chapo, is the previous chief of the infamous Sinaloa cartel. He was sentenced to life in prison and is serving his sentence at “super-max” jail in Colorado.
The brothers inherited their father’s multibillion-dollar empire when he was incarcerated, allegedly steering it into artificial medication together with methamphetamine and the highly effective opioid fentanyl, which has been blamed for killing virtually 200 folks within the US every single day.
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Guzman Lopez, often called “The Mouse”, and his siblings have been all indicted by US prosecutors in April amid claims they produced enormous quantities of fentanyl and bought the drug at its lowest worth.
They operated an enormous worldwide trafficking operation that noticed medication transported to the US through airplane, submarines, fishing boats and rail automobiles, bringing in lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in income, it’s alleged.
The brothers all deny the allegations and declare they’re the “victims of persecution” and “scapegoats”.
“We have never produced, manufactured or commercialised fentanyl nor any of its derivatives,” they mentioned in a press release.
“El Chapo” pictured in New York in January 2017, shortly after his extradition to the US
The extradition of Guzman Lopez is “testament to the significance of the ongoing co-operation between the American and Mexican governments on countering narcotics and other vital challenges,” US Homeland Security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall mentioned.
Guzman Lopez was captured by Mexican safety forces in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, in northwest Mexico, in January.
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His arrest sparked a wave of violence resulting in the deaths of 30 folks, together with 10 army personnel, with the Mexican military deploying Black Hawk helicopter gunships in a shoot-out in opposition to the cartel’s truck-mounted 50-caliber machine weapons.
Cartel gunmen hit two army plane, forcing them to land.
Read extra:
Officer who arrested El Chapo’s son killed in hail of bullets
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They additionally despatched gunmen to the town’s airport, the place each army and civilian plane have been focused.
Officials tried to detain Guzman Lopez in Culiacan in 2019 however have been pressured to desert their operation after comparable violence unfolded.
Security forces exterior the Altiplano excessive safety jail in Mexico the place Guzman Lopez was held after his arrest in January
Mexico’s President Andrez Manuel Lopez Obrador personally ordered his release after lots of of cartel members overwhelmed safety forces.
El Chapo escaped jail in Mexico twice earlier than he was lastly arrested and extradited to the US in 2017, forward of his conviction at a federal courtroom in Brooklyn.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the spouse of drug lord “El Chapo” Joaquin Guzman, pictured after his trial in 2019
His spouse, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was released from US custody final week after serving lower than two years behind bars.
The 34-year-old is alleged to have helped to plan her husband’s escape from jail in 2015, which concerned digging a tunnel beneath a jail.
Content Source: news.sky.com
