CHICAGO, Dec 2, (AP): One of the sons of notorious Mexican drug kingpin "El Chapo” pleaded guilty on Monday to US drug trafficking charges, months after his brother entered a plea deal. Known locally in Mexico as the "Chapitos” - or "little Chapos” - Joaquín Guzmán López and brother Ovidio Guzmán López are accused of running a faction of the Sinaloa cartel.

Federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send "staggering” quantities of fentanyl into the US Joaquín Guzmán López, 39, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms (pounds) of drugs to the US, mostly through underground tunnels.

With the plea deal, his attorney said, he is expected to avoid life in prison. Security was tight at Chicago's federal court ahead of the hearing in which prosecutors detailed events leading up to Guzmán López's dramatic arrest with another longtime Sinaloa leader on US soil in July 2024. Wearing an orange jumpsuit and matching shoes, Guzmán López spoke little in court Monday.

At the outset of the hearing, US District Judge Sharon Coleman asked him what he did for work. "Drug trafficking,” he said. "Oh that’s your job,” Coleman said with a chuckle. "There you go.” If Guzmán López cooperates with the US government, prosecutors said, they would reduce the life sentence attached to the charges. Regardless, he faces at least 10 years in prison, said Andrew Erskine, an attorney representing the federal government.

Guzmán López would have no opportunity to appeal the sentence as part of the plea deal. His defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, commended both US and Mexican authorities. "The government has been very fair with Joaquín thus far,” he told reporters after the hearing. "I do appreciate the fact that the Mexican government didn’t interfere.”

Guzmán López and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael "El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after they landed in the US on a private plane. Both men have previously pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges. Their surprising capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.