One of the four sons of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in a US court.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty Monday after U.S. prosecutors vowed last May not to seek the death penalty against him.
Lopez, 39, is a member of Los Chapitos, a cell made up of El Chapo's children, including his brother Ovidio, who pleaded guilty in July to drug trafficking, firearms and money laundering charges.
Their father, who was one of the founders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, is serving a life sentence in Colorado.
US prosecutors say the brothers became drug cartel leaders after their father was arrested.
Lopez was arrested last year along with cartel boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada after landing a private jet in Texas. US reports say the men were tricked into entering US territory in order to be arrested.
As part of the plea deal, Lopez admitted that she helped control the production and smuggling of large amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl into the United States.
Fentanyl, which is more than 50 times more potent than heroin, is the leading cause of death in the United States for people ages 18 to 45.
Lopez's guilty plea comes as the Trump administration faces pressure from Congress to justify its missile strikes on suspected drug traffickers at sea.
Trump has proposed designating cartels as terrorist organizations and said strikes are necessary to prevent drug deaths in the United States.
Critics have called them extrajudicial killings and said they could violate international treaties governing war.
Meanwhile, Mexican authorities announced Sunday that they had killed a prominent drug trafficker wanted in the United States.
According to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson, Pedro “Pichon” Inzunza Coronel, who was one of the country's largest fentanyl traffickers, was involved in numerous crimes, including “murder, kidnapping, torture and the forced collection of debts for drug trafficking.”
“These results reflect what our countries can achieve when they work together against those who pose a threat to our citizens,” Johnson wrote on X.
