The son of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been arrested.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez was arrested alongside his father’s former partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo.

Zambada, who is deemed one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico’s history, and Guzman Lopez were arrested in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, the US Justice Department said.

They are alleged to have been leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, which the department described in a statement as “one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organisations in the world”.

Zambada and Guzman Lopez face multiple charges in the US “for heading the Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks”, the statement said.

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FBI Director Christopher Wray said: “Garcia and Guzman have allegedly overseen the trafficking of tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the US along with related violence.

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“These arrests are an example of the FBI’s and our partners commitment to dismantling violent transnational criminal organisations like the Sinaloa Cartel.”

Two US officials told Reuters that Zambada and Guzman Lopez were detained after landing in a private plane.

US federal prosecutors in February charged Zambada with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, which
the Drug Enforcement Administration says is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison after being extradited to the US in 2017.

El Chapo escaped prison in Mexico twice before he was finally extradited.

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‘Los Chapitos’

After El Chapo’s extradition, his criminal empire was inherited by four of his sons – known as Los Chapitos, or
Little Chapos – who took over his part of the cartel and became some of the biggest exporters of fentanyl to the US.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, all sons of El Chapo, were in April last year charged over drug trafficking by the US Justice Department.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez was captured by Mexican security forces in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, in northwest Mexico, in January 2023.

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