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- One of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's sons, Ovidio Guzman has pleaded not guilty to the drug trafficking charges leveled against him.
- Ovidio and 3 of his brothers inherited control of their fathers trafficking operation after the conviction of 'El Chapo' on a litany of charges.
- Ovidio's arrest is seen as a boost for the Biden administration, as it looks to curb drug trafficking.
Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of incarcerated Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pleaded not guilty to US fentanyl trafficking charges on Monday in a federal court in Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune, three days after his extradition from Mexico.
Guzman, 33, is one of El Chapo's four sons, known as "Los Chapitos," who inherited their father's trafficking empire after his conviction on US murder and drug charges in 2019.
"El Chapo" Guzman is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
US officials said Ovidio Guzman's arrest and extradition represent a significant victory in the Biden administration's campaign to stem the deadly flow of fentanyl across the southern border.
Guzman was briefly arrested in Culiacan in the northern state of Sinaloa in 2019. But president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered him released after hundreds of Sinaloa Cartel gunmen overwhelmed security forces in the city.
Guzman was captured again in January after an intense firefight. The US requested his extradition in February.
Fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid, is responsible for nearly 200 American deaths a day, a toll that has strained US-Mexico relations and put domestic pressure on the Biden administration to slow the spread of the deadly drug.
The Sinaloa Cartel is primarily responsible for manufacturing and exporting fentanyl across the border, according to US officials.
In court papers, prosecutors said Ovidio Guzman and his brothers operated a massive international trafficking operation that transported drugs to the US using airplanes, submarines, fishing boats, and rail cars and reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
The State Department has offered rewards worth millions of dollars for information leading to the capture of the Guzman brothers.
"El Chapo" Guzman rose to prominence at the helm of the Sinaloa Cartel and added to his infamy by escaping Mexican prisons not once but twice. He was extradited to the US in 2017 and convicted in federal court in Brooklyn.
