A federal grand jury in Chicago has indicted a suspected high-ranking member of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, accusing him of producing medication, together with fentanyl, and bringing them into the US.
Ceferino Espinoza Angulo, 43, allegedly labored with others to acquire fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ecstasy in Mexico to distribute within the U.S., in response to an indictment returned Monday within the Northern District of Illinois.
Espinoza Angulo, also referred to as “El Koyote,” allegedly additionally conspired to acquire chemical substances to make fentanyl. He’s additionally accused of illegally possessing a machine gun, the indictment states.
He employed “dozens” of gunmen to guard the operation in addition to the management of a faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by 4 sons of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, in response to the indictment.
The sons, collectively generally 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 have been charged in federal court docket in Chicago with operating their father’s drug empire after his 2016 seize. Guzman Loera is now serving a life sentence in a most safety federal jail 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., the place he pleaded not responsible.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez surrendered to U.S. authorities final 12 months, flying from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, together with his father’s former cartel companion, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Zambada was allegedly duped into pondering the flight was heading to an airfield in northern Mexico. Zambada has pleaded not responsible in federal court docket in New York to drug trafficking and different prices.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez and Joaquin Guzman Lopez are each being held in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Heart and are because of seem in court docket within the coming weeks as they proceed to negotiate plea deals with federal prosecutors.
Neither brother confirmed as much as their first joint court docket listening to on the Dirksen Federal Constructing final month, the place attorneys requested a federal choose for extra time to proceed plea negotiations.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s subsequent listening to was set for Feb. 27. Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s listening to was set for March 19.
The opposite two sons stay at giant and have multimillion-dollar U.S. bounties for his or her seize.
Chicago has been one of the main destinations for Mexican-made fentanyl, which is blended with heroin and different medication, typically resulting in deadly overdoses due to the efficiency of fentanyl.
This month, President Donald Trump retreated from imposing crippling tariffs on Mexico in trade for the nation rising Nationwide Guard patrols alongside the border.
A contingent of 10,000 Nationwide Guard troops arrived in Ciudad Juarez, throughout the border from El Paso, Texas, on Feb. 5.
Trump has declared an emergency on the border regardless of migration levels and fentanyl overdoses considerably dipping over the previous 12 months. The U.S. stated it could, in flip, do extra to cease American weapons from being trafficked into Mexico to gas cartel violence, which has rippled to different components of the nation as legal teams combat to manage the profitable migrant smuggling business.
“Our nation’s fentanyl disaster has devastated people and households in northern Illinois and all through the nation,” Performing U.S. Legal professional for the Northern District of Illinois Morris Pasqual stated in an announcement. “Our workplace will proceed to work with our regulation enforcement companions to disrupt the manufacturing and trafficking of fentanyl and different harmful narcotics earlier than they will attain extra victims.”
Espinoza Angulo is believed to be dwelling in Mexico, and a U.S. warrant has been issued for his arrest. If convicted he faces a minimal of 30 years in jail and a potential life sentence.
Contributing: David Struett, Frank Essential, Related Press
