A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted a suspected high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, accusing him of manufacturing drugs, including fentanyl, and bringing them into the United States.
Ceferino Espinoza Angulo, 43, allegedly worked with others to obtain fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ecstasy in Mexico to distribute in the U.S., according to an indictment returned Monday in the Northern District of Illinois.
Espinoza Angulo, also known as “El Koyote,” allegedly also conspired to obtain chemicals to make fentanyl. He is also accused of illegally possessing a machine gun, the indictment states.
He employed “dozens” of gunmen to protect the operation as well as the leadership of a faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by four sons of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, according to the indictment.
The sons, collectively known as “the Chapitos,” or little Chapos, are Ivan Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, Ovidio Guzman Lopez and Joaqin Guzman Lopez. In 2023, the brothers were charged in federal court in Chicago with running their father’s drug empire after his 2016 capture. Guzman Loera is now serving a life sentence in a maximum security federal prison in Colorado.
Two of his sons are already in U.S. custody.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in 2023 in Mexico and extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded not guilty.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez surrendered to U.S. authorities last year, flying from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, with his father’s former cartel partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Zambada was allegedly duped into thinking the flight was heading to an airfield in northern Mexico. Zambada has pleaded not guilty in federal court in New York to drug trafficking and other charges.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez and Joaquin Guzman Lopez are both being held in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center and are due to appear in court in the coming weeks as they continue to negotiate plea deals with federal prosecutors.
Neither brother showed up to their first joint court hearing at the Dirksen Federal Building last month, where attorneys asked a federal judge for more time to continue plea negotiations.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s next hearing was set for Feb. 27. Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s hearing was set for March 19.
The other two sons remain at large and have multimillion-dollar U.S. bounties for their capture.
Chicago has been one of the main destinations for Mexican-made fentanyl, which is mixed with heroin and other drugs, often leading to fatal overdoses because of the potency of fentanyl.
This month, President Donald Trump retreated from imposing crippling tariffs on Mexico in exchange for the country increasing National Guard patrols along the border.
A contingent of 10,000 National Guard troops arrived in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 5.
Trump has declared an emergency on the border despite migration levels and fentanyl overdoses significantly dipping over the past year. The U.S. said it would, in turn, do more to stop American guns from being trafficked into Mexico to fuel cartel violence, which has rippled to other parts of the country as criminal groups fight to control the lucrative migrant smuggling industry.
“Our nation’s fentanyl crisis has devastated individuals and families in northern Illinois and throughout the country,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Morris Pasqual said in a statement. “Our office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to disrupt the production and trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous narcotics before they can reach more victims.”
Espinoza Angulo is believed to be living in Mexico, and a U.S. warrant has been issued for his arrest. If convicted he faces a minimum of 30 years in prison and a possible life sentence.
Contributing: David Struett, Frank Main, Associated Press