New York, United States

A son of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is expected to plead guilty to narcotics charges in a Chicago court Friday as part of a deal in return for a reduced sentence.

Nicknamed "El Raton," or "The Mouse," Ovidio Guzman signed a deal dated June 30 indicating he would enter a guilty plea to avoid a jury trial and a potentially harsher sentence if convicted.

During a hearing scheduled to be held in a Chicago court, the guilty plea is expected to be formalized after months of negotiation with the prosecution.

Ovidio Guzman, 35, is accused of conspiring in a continuing criminal enterprise, importing and distributing fentanyl, laundering money, and using firearms.

His guilty plea will likely result in a far shorter prison term than the life sentence given to his father El Chapo following a high-profile trial held in 2018.

He could offer US authorities "valuable information" about the cartel and its protectors, Mike Vigil, former head of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, told AFP.

Ovidio Guzman gained prominence in October 2019 when Mexican authorities detained him -- only to release him later on orders from then president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador amid a standoff between law enforcement and gang members.

Ovidio Guzman was recaptured in January 2023, while Lopez Obrador was still in office, and later extradited to the United States.

US authorities accuse Ovidio and his three brothers of leading Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel designated by the administration of US President Donald Trump as a global "terrorist" organization.

His father, one of the world's most infamous drug traffickers, is serving a life sentence in a US prison.

The United States alleges Ovidio Guzman and his associates trafficked fentanyl into the country, where the opioid epidemic is linked to tens of thousands of deaths.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups that Trump has designated as terrorist organizations.

Another son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was arrested after arriving in the United States last July on a private plane with cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who claimed he had been kidnapped.

The arrests sparked cartel infighting that has left more than 1,200 people dead and 1,400 missing in Sinaloa state, located in northwestern Mexico.

In its aggressive policy against drug cartels, the Trump administration announced additional sanctions against Los Chapitos in June for fentanyl trafficking and increased the reward to $10 million for each of the fugitive brothers.

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© Agence France-Presse