An attorney for two sons of imprisoned Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera said Monday that one of the latest sons to be arrested has no deal with federal authorities but demurred when asked if he was cooperating with them.
After a hearing for El Chapo’ son Joaquin Guzman Lopez at Chicago’s federal courthouse, defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman asserted again, as he did when the son was arrested in July, that “We have no agreement with the government.”
When pressed if Guzman Lopez was cooperating with authorities, Lichtman said: “You know, there’s plenty of people that have come here and have just decided that they want to get on with it. It’s not easy living in Sinaloa as a fugitive. So sometimes it’s better to get your legal issues resolved.”
Guzman Lopez made headlines in July when rumors swirled that he may have kidnapped Sinaloa co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia and flown to the U.S., where authorities arrested them both. Even after a Mexican official said Guzman Lopez had struck a deal with authorities before the arrest, Lichtman denied a deal ever existed.
Guzman Lopez faces criminal charges in an indictment that accuses him of taking part in a massive drug conspiracy, including one charge that carries the possibility of the death penalty.
In a brief court hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman asked Guzman Lopez if he consented to his attorney, Lichtman, also representing his brother Ovidio Guzman Lopez in the same case.
“Yes, your honor,” Guzman Lopez replied. He was escorted into court without handcuffs and in an orange jumpsuit.
Attorneys and Coleman agreed to meet again in court Jan. 7, after Coleman will be able to ask Ovidio Guzman Lopez if he is OK with the same potential conflict.
After the hearing, Lichtman told reporters he was continuing to pore over discovery evidence in the case, and that he would be trying to seek a resolution with federal prosecutors to keep it from going to trial.
“Every case I have, I want to reach a disposition, if I can,” Lichtman said. “You know, I don’t want to go to trial unless we have to go to trial. … And I’m certainly prepared to go to trial.”
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in Colorado after his 2019 conviction in Brooklyn. Zambada had eluded authorities for decades and never set foot in a prison until a plane carrying him and Joaquin Guzman Lopez landed in New Mexico on July 25.