El Chapo's sons are indicted for drug conspiracy



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Just one day after Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug chief known as El Chapo, was convicted of 10 counts in a drug conspiracy case in Brooklyn, the Ministry of Justice has unveiled another indictment – against two of his younger sons.

This brief indictment of four pages, announced Thursday by the ministry more than a week after its cancellation on February 13, blames Joaquín Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López for plotting to "deliberately , intentionally and deliberately "distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana for import into the United States. The indictment covers a period from April 2008 – when their father was running the Sinaloa cartel with his partner, Ismael Zambada – in April 2018.

The two brothers have still not been arrested and the authorities believe that they are in Mexico. If they are arrested there, the United States should extradite them to bring them to justice, which would be judged by Judge Rudolph Contreras of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

A. Eduardo Balarezo, one of El Chapo's lawyers, questioned the timing of the indictment. "The recent indictment of Joaquín's two sons is a concerted attempt by the government to paint the entire family as involved in criminal activities when the only evidence they have is based on the testimony of a cooperator," he said. he declared.

Anthony Nardozzi, of the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section of the Criminal Division, one of the prosecutors in the case of Mr. Guzmán, was appointed lead prosecutor in the case involving the sons of El Chapo.

Mr. Nardozzi played a small role in the conviction of El Chapo by examining a handful of the 56 witnesses presented by the prosecutors. Among the people he interviewed, there was Mr. Guzmán's mistress, whom he escaped from the authorities while descending a tunnel under his bathtub, as well as Isaias Valdez Rios, his former bodyguard and pilot, who told the jurors murderous murders and tortures.

Nardozzi also interviewed several government officials, including a special internal security surveillance oversight officer. The agency also conducted the investigation of El Chapo's two sons as part of a coordinated effort between federal, regional and local law enforcement agencies.

"H.S.I. Special agents of H.S.I. Nogales investigated El Chapo, "said Scott Brown, special agent in charge of Phoenix. "And they were special agents from the same office whose investigative efforts resulted in the indictment of two of his sons."

The elder sons of the drug leader, who helped take over the reins of his arrest in 2016, have already been indicted. Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar was charged in 2014 with a case in San Diego involving, among others, his father. Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar was indicted in 2015 in Chicago. Both remain on the run. Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar has been added to the list of most wanted fugitives by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

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