Ovidio Guzman was extradited from Mexico on Friday and faces multiple charges for allegedly trafficking drugs including fentanyl.
Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of jailed Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, has pleaded not guilty in a United States court to multiple charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
Guzman, one of El Chapo’s four sons, appeared in court in Chicago on Monday, a few days after his extradition from Mexico.
During a brief hearing under tight security, Guzman, wearing an orange jumpsuit with his ankles shackled, listened to the proceedings through a Spanish interpreter, the Chicago Tribune reported.
He pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Known by the alias El Raton or The Mouse, he is accused of conspiring to ship cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the US.
His father, El Chapo, was extradited to the US from Mexico in 2017 and convicted two years later. He is now serving a life sentence for drug trafficking and murder in a maximum security prison.
The US has said El Chapo’s four sons, known collectively as The Chapitos or The Little Chapos, inherited control of his Sinaloa cartel after his conviction.
Three of the 66-year-old’s other sons have also been charged in the US.
Ovidio Guzman was captured on January 5 in the town of Culiacan in northern Sinaloa.
After his arrest, cartel members set fire to vehicles and caused chaos, an echo of the massive gun battles in 2019 when the younger Guzman was arrested but quickly released to avoid bloodshed.
Two of the six charges Guzman faces in the U.S. carry a mandatory life sentence, prosecutors said, according to the Chicago Tribune. The US agreed not to enforce the death penalty as part of extradition negotiations with Mexico, the newspaper said.
Guzman is being held in custody until his trial and is due to appear in court in November.