The US justice system confirmed on Friday that it still has in its custody Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel extradited to the United States in 2023, about whom Mexico reported this week that he has been released.
A Justice Department source confirmed to EFE that the former leader of Los Chapitos remains in US custody and that his next court appearance is scheduled for October 1 in the Northern District of Illinois court.
The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said on Thursday that the so-called El Ratón, 34, had been released from prison and that his release is related to the capture of Ismael El Mayo Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, another of El Chapo’s sons last month in New Mexico.
But Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodriguez, said the U.S. Embassy reported that Guzman Lopez has not been released, but that there had been “a change of precautionary measure.”
Guzmán López was arrested on January 5, 2023, in an operation by the Mexican Army in Sinaloa.
Last September, he was extradited to the US as he is considered one of the most wanted drug traffickers by the justice system in that country for his involvement in fentanyl trafficking.
The Justice Department had filed charges against him in three different federal districts for allegedly assuming leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel after the arrest and subsequent extradition to the US of his father, who was convicted on drug trafficking charges.
Three other brothers of Guzmán López, including Joaquín, have also been named in the charges.