Son of El Chapo Enters US Witness Protection Program, Universal Reports

(Bloomberg) -- Ovidio Guzmán, a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, has entered the witness protection program in the US, daily El Universal reported on Friday citing a DEA source.

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The young Guzmán, once the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, is in custody of the US Marshals and his case is now classified, according to the daily.

Guzmán was extradited in September amid pressure from the US on Mexico to curb fentanyl trafficking.

In January of last year he was arrested by the Mexican military in an operation that triggered blockades, shootings and looting across the northern city of Culiacán. He was released shortly after. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador later acknowledged he had ordered his release to appease the city and prevent further violence. He previously said he’d not been informed of the operation.

Guzmán went off the grid in the US penitentiary system in July just shortly before his brother, Joaquín Guzmán López, and Sinaloa cartel co-founder, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada were arrested by US authorities in Texas after taking a plane from Mexico.

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