Mexico’s safety chief confirmed Tuesday that 17 members of the family of cartel leaders crossed into the U.S. final week as a part of a deal between a son of the previous head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration.
Mexican Safety Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed a report by impartial journalist Luis Chaparro that members of the family of Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, who was extradited to the US in 2023, had entered the U.S.
Guzmán Lopez is without doubt one of the brothers left working a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel after infamous capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was imprisoned within the U.S. Video confirmed the members of the family strolling throughout the border from Tijuana with their suitcases to ready U.S. brokers.
El Chapo’s ex-wife, Griselda Lopez Perez, and her daughter have been among the many members of the family to enter the U.S., Mexico Information Every day reported.
Rumors had circulated final week that the youthful Guzmán would plead responsible to keep away from trial for a number of drug trafficking prices within the U.S. after being extradited in 2023. Mexican safety forces captured Guzmán López, alias “the Mouse,” in January 2023 in Culiacán, capital of Sinaloa state.
CEPROPIE by way of AP File
García Harfuch confirmed the members of the family’ crossing in a radio interview and stated it was clear to Mexican authorities that they have been doing so after negotiations between Guzmán López and the U.S. authorities.
He believed that was the case as a result of the previous cartel boss, whose lawyer stated in January he had entered negotiations with U.S. authorities, had been pointing fingers at members of different prison organizations seemingly as a part of a cooperation settlement.
“It is evident that his family is going to the U.S. because of a negotiation or an offer that the Department of Justice is giving him,” Garcia Harfuch stated.
He stated that not one of the members of the family have been being pursued by Mexican authorities and that the federal government of President Trump “has to share information” with Mexican prosecutors, one thing it has not but carried out.
The affirmation by García Harfuch comes the identical day that the U.S. Legal professional Normal’s Workplace introduced it was charging numerous high cartel leaders with “narcoterrorism” for the primary time for the reason that Trump administration declared numerous cartels as overseas terrorist organizations.
Whereas prosecutors declined to touch upon the video of the household, U.S. Legal professional Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California and different officers despatched a warning to cartel members, repeatedly citing the Sinaloa Cartel by identify.
“Let me be direct, to the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, you are no longer the hunters, you are the hunted. You will be betrayed by your friends, you will be hounded by your enemies, and you will ultimately find yourself and your face here in a courtroom in the Southern District of California,” Gordon stated.
Additionally on Tuesday, U.S. officers unveiled an indictment towards two alleged Sinaloa Cartel leaders on narco-terrorism prices — together with a father and son who prosecutors say ran one of many largest and most refined fentanyl manufacturing networks.
EL Chapo’s sons
The U.S. accuses El Chapo’s sons — often called the Chapitos — of taking on the Sinaloa cartel after the seize of their father. The cartel is certainly one of six Mexican drug trafficking teams designated terrorist organizations by Mr. Trump.
Based on a 2023 indictment by the U.S. Justice Division, the Chapitos and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and sizzling chiles to torture their rivals whereas a few of their victims have been “fed dead or alive to tigers.”
Ovidio Guzman is accused of conspiring to ship cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the US.
One other son, Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, was arrested after arriving in the US final July in a personal airplane with cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who claimed he had been kidnapped.
The arrests sparked cartel infighting that has left greater than 1,200 folks useless and 1,400 lacking in Sinaloa state, positioned in northwestern Mexico.
El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel’s founder, is serving a life sentence in a most safety jail in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on prices together with drug trafficking, cash laundering and weapons-related offenses.
In 2023, El Chapo despatched an “SOS” message to Mexico’s president, alleging that he has been subjected to “psychological torment” in jail.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
