Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of Sinaloa cartel founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pleaded guilty on 11 July 2025 in U.S. District Court in Chicago to four felony counts that include trafficking multiple drugs—among them fentanyl—money laundering and firearms violations. He is the first of the so-called “Chapitos” to admit U.S. charges. Under a 36-page plea agreement, Guzmán accepted responsibility for moving large quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the United States after his father’s 2016 arrest. He agreed to forfeit US$80 million and to provide “full, truthful and continuing” cooperation in related investigations. Prosecutors told Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman they will ask for a sentence below life imprisonment if that assistance proves substantial. The deal followed the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York dropping parallel narcotics charges on 1 July to concentrate the case in Illinois. Guzmán had been extradited from Mexico in September 2023 after a high-profile arrest that left at least ten Mexican soldiers dead. Bureau of Prisons records show the 35-year-old was moved on 14 July from Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center to an undisclosed secure location, a routine step for cooperating witnesses. The court set 9 January 2026 to determine a sentencing date, giving prosecutors time to gauge the extent of his assistance against remaining Sinaloa cartel figures.