New York Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Ovidio Guzmán Ahead of Guilty Plea in Chicago

Charges against Ovidio Guzmán dropped in NY

Formal plea in Chicago

Possible deal with prosecutors

According to Milenio, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced it was dropping drug trafficking charges against Ovidio Guzmán López, known as “El Ratón.” The move comes just a week before the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is set to formally enter a guilty plea in the Northern District of Illinois court in Chicago.

This decision marks a pivotal shift in the complex legal landscape surrounding the former leader of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán faces serious accusations in the United States, including drug trafficking, money laundering, organized crime, and firearms offenses.

In a document signed the day before the dismissal, Ovidio Guzmán confirmed his intention to plead guilty in Illinois, waiving his right to be tried for the same offenses in New York, where he had been charged since 2023 with racketeering, fentanyl trafficking, firearms possession, and money laundering.

The agreement reflects the result of months of negotiations between his legal team and the U.S. government, aimed at avoiding a lengthy trial and exploring possible sentence reductions as part of a cooperation deal.

Ovidio Guzmán’s Guilty Plea

#Breaking
The New York prosecutor’s office drops drug trafficking charges against Ovidio Guzmán.
He is expected to plead guilty and cooperate with U.S. authorities. pic.twitter.com/RDIVnGMvoX

— Monica Garza (@monicagarzag) July 1, 2025

Court records show Guzmán López is scheduled to appear on July 9 in the Northern District of Illinois court to formally enter his guilty plea—a step that could pave the way for a reduced sentence if a cooperation agreement is finalized.

In Chicago, he faces five formal charges related to drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy, money laundering, and firearms offenses—crimes that carry lengthy sentences under the federal system.

The legal strategy of El Chapo’s son isn’t isolated. His brother Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Güero,” is also facing charges in the same court and is due back on July 15 for an update on his own case, after being linked to the surrender of Ismael Zambada García, another key leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, to U.S. authorities.

The dismissal of charges in New York is merely the latest episode in Ovidio Guzmán’s legal saga, which gained global notoriety following his dramatic arrest in January 2023 in Jesús María, Sinaloa—a military operation that unleashed gun battles, roadblocks, and fires in Culiacán and ultimately led to his transfer to Mexico’s high-security Altiplano prison.

Extradition and the Sinaloa Kingpin’s Background

New York Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Ovidio Guzmán – PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

From there, Guzmán López waged a legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States—a fight that lasted several months until Mexican authorities finally handed him over to U.S. officials on September 15, 2023.

After his extradition, he appeared in federal court in Illinois on September 18, where he heard the charges against him and pleaded not guilty at his initial hearing.

The criminal history U.S. authorities attribute to him has been pieced together over years of investigations into “Los Chapitos,” the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel he and his brothers led following the arrest and extradition of their father, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is now serving a life sentence in the United States.

Before his final capture in 2023, Ovidio Guzmán was at the center of the notorious “Culiacanazo” in October 2019, when an initial military operation to detain him failed amid violent backlash from the Sinaloa Cartel, forcing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government to release him to avoid further bloodshed.

Legal Negotiations and Ovidio Guzmán’s Future

Ovidio Guzmán: cargos retirados FOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

Following his extradition, negotiations with U.S. prosecutors intensified, seeking to avoid a full trial through a plea deal that could reduce his sentence in exchange for cooperation.

In 2024, speculation about a possible deal gained momentum after authorities removed his name from the public Bureau of Prisons (BOP) records, fueling rumors of an ongoing arrangement with the government.

Although the Mexican government initially denied any cooperation agreement, judicial sources confirmed in May 2025 that prosecutors informed Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman of the cancellation of a hearing scheduled for May 12 after reaching a plea agreement.

If the guilty plea is finalized on July 9 in Chicago, Ovidio Guzmán would join the list of Mexican drug kingpins who have sought deals with the U.S. justice system to mitigate lengthy prison sentences in exchange for intelligence about the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations and its international criminal networks.