SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of the notorious Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán, officially agreed to a plea deal on Friday morning with U.S. Attorney prosecutors, admitting guilt to four criminal charges related to his involvement in a faction of his father’s Sinaloa cartel.

Ovidio, known as “The Mouse,” admitted to two counts of drug distribution and two counts of participation in a continuing criminal enterprise. 

He formally entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Sharon Coleman in Chicago and is now facing a possible life sentence.

But it’s widely believed Ovidio will receive a much lower sentence as a result of this arrangement with the federal government.

This agreement has facilitated the formal entry of 17 of his family members into the United States two months ago, who are now undergoing the process of obtaining asylum through the witness protection program.

Prosecutors assert that Ovidio Guzmán López along with his brothers, known as the “Chapitos,” which translates to little Chapos in English, managed a wing of the Sinaloa Cartel after their father was arrested in 2016. They are accused of generating hundreds of millions of dollars by producing and smuggling fentanyl into the U.S.

Ovidio was extradited to the U.S. from Mexico in September 2023.

A year ago, his brother, Joaquín Guzmán Lopez was arrested in El Paso along with Sinaloa kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

The sibling is negotiating his own deal with the U.S. government after being charged with drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against him.

Joaquin is due in court later this month.

Their father, “El Chapo,” Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado after his 2019 drug trafficking conviction.