El Chapo's sons still held in US jails, no cooperation agreements with feds, attorney says

CHICAGO (WLS) -- There may be questions answered Wednesday about the status and location of two members of cartel narco royalty: Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's sons Ovidio Guzman Lopez and Joaquín Guzman Lopez.

Two of the notorious drug lord's sons are still being held by federal law enforcement in Chicago according to their attorney, despite reports in Mexico and rumors swirling that they may have cut a deal with the U.S. government.

After weeks of speculation by Mexican media and some supposed drug cartel experts, the ABC7 I-Team has been told that El Chapo's kin are still under lock and key, held by Chicago federal agents in a major trafficking case once headlined by their father.

According to their attorney Jeffrey Lichtman, disclosed in his personal podcast "Beyond the Legal Limit" released last weekend, both sons are not cooperating witnesses nor have they been whisked away to some isolated island and given new names.

"I'm not going to mention where he is for security reasons, but he's still in prison," Lichtman said in Sunday's episode. "I mean, he's charged with multiple murders, a massive amount of drug dealing."

When 33-year-old Ovidio Guzman was arrested and then extradited to Chicago one year ago this week on Sept. 15, 2023, he was facing a federal drug trafficking indictment and considered a high-value narco target and high risk prisoner as the son of El Chapo.

Lichtman said that Ovidio, known in cartel circles as "The Mouse," was held in the special housing unit here at Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) Chicago, a solitary section of the federal lock-up known as the SHU.

Lichtman said that he began a campaign to have Chapo's son moved to a less oppressive facility, and that in July, he succeeded.

But rumors swirled in Mexico and on American narco blogs that Chapo's son had entered the witness protection program and was cooperating with prosecutors when a plane from Mexico flew over the border and landed at a rural Texas air field, carrying a second El Chapo son, 38-year-old Joaquín Guzman Lopez, and cartel overlord 76-year-old Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

Lichtman on his podcast said the rumors are flat-out false.

"Both of the brothers who are in America are both in jail. Neither of them have a cooperation agreement with the government," Lichtman said.

ABC 7 chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Gil Soffer said the comments shared on Lichtman's podcast likely had his clients' blessing.

"It would be surprising for any defense attorney to make public statements about a pending case without the approval of their clients," Soffer said. "He'd be running a real risk that those clients could take him to task, could claim malpractice and could discharge them."

Meanwhile, the senior member of the Sinaloa Cartel, El Mayo Zambada, is also destined for a move on Con Air: the government's worst-class flight service for reassigned prisoners.

Zambada, who is also under indictment in Chicago and several other cities, will be taken from El Paso, Texas, to New York to stand trial, according to a recent ruling by a Texas judge.