The four sons of El Chapo, a famed Mexican drug lord, were charged with large-scale drug trafficking on Friday, according to U.S. federal officials.
Authorities revealed that the men were running their jailed father’s enterprise, and they were in charge of transporting massive amounts of fentanyl into and throughout the United States.
At a news conference in Washington, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that in addition to the four sons, collectively known as Los Chapitos, federal indictments in Manhattan, Chicago, and Washington had charged more than two dozen additional individuals in connection with the crime.
According to Mr Garland, the defendants included Chinese suppliers who sold the so-called precursor materials used to make fentanyl, a Guatemalan broker who purchased the chemicals on behalf of those running illegal labs in Mexico, and a supplier of weapons who gave the cartel access to weapons smuggled into Mexico from the United States.
Together, the five indictments offered a comprehensive picture of the production, distribution, and eventual sale of the drug fentanyl on American streets, which was responsible for tens of thousands of fatalities in the country last year.
“The Justice Department is attacking every aspect of the cartel’s operations,” the attorney said.
Mr. Garland stated that “the Sinaloa cartel is largely responsible for the surge of fentanyl into the United States over the last eight years.”
He expressed gratitude to the Mexican government for its assistance and mentioned that representatives from the Justice Department had met on Thursday in Washington with the defence and interior security secretaries, as well as with the attorney general and the foreign minister of Mexico.
The indictments against El Chapo’s sons were not the first ones filed against them.
Similar to their father, who was accused in seven cases across seven locations until being found guilty in Federal District Court in Brooklyn in 2019, they are currently dealing with several indictments across different jurisdictions.
