The sons of former Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán are asking the U.S.’s DEA to go away them alone and urging them to research “who actually owns” the lately busted fentanyl laboratories in Sinaloa.
In a letter despatched to distinguished Mexican journalist Azucena Uresti on Could 4, the Guzmán brothers, collectively often called “Los Chapitos,” mentioned they aren’t the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel nor “fake to be in any means.” Additionally they claimed that the fentanyl being produced at the moment in Sinaloa “has a reputation [behind it]” and it isn’t theirs.
Los Chapitos are allegedly led by 40-year-old Iván Guzmán Salazar, alongside together with his youthful brothers Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 37, and Joaquín Guzmán López, 36, and Ovidio Guzmán López, 33. The primary three are all at the moment fugitives with million greenback bounties on their heads. In January, Mexican safety forces captured Ovidio Guzmán López after a firefight that left a minimum of 29 individuals useless.
“Now we have by no means labored with fentanyl, though there are a lot of in Sinaloa that do produce it, and that’s why we’ve got seen the latest seizures. However these laboratories have a reputation and a final identify. Perform some research. You’ll solely have to ship a single agent to Sinaloa,” the Guzmáns wrote within the letter.
The Guzmáns referenced the most recent press convention by Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Anne Milgram on April 14, complaining that “the anti-drugs company of essentially the most highly effective nation on the planet “put their identify at a world degree.
“That is harming us and is turning into worldwide propaganda used to their solely profit,” the letter reads.
On April 14, the DEA introduced new fees towards “Los Chapitos”, alleging that they’re extra highly effective and even deadlier than their father El Chapo.
“The Chapitos pioneered the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl – the deadliest drug menace our nation has ever confronted – flooded it into america for the previous eight years and killed lots of of hundreds of Individuals,” Milgram mentioned.
Los Chapitos additionally hit out towards “influencers and YouTubers” for “incomes innumerable advantages from our identify and interviewing so-called specialists utilizing our identify with out having any concept who we’re.”
“A lie instructed a thousand occasions turns into a fact,” Los Chapitos added within the letter.
“Now we have all the time chosen to stay silent and be cautious about talking in public. We thought that by remaining silent the implications would slowly disappear,” the letter says.
The three-page letter was despatched to Uresti by José del Refugio Rodríguez, a Mexican legal professional from Sinaloa who has represented El Chapo up to now.
The U.S. Division Of Justice introduced new indictments towards the Guzmán brothers in April, which alleged that they’d examined fentanyl on people earlier than transport it to the U.S.
In the identical month, Mexico and the U.S. introduced the creation of a brand new fee to battle the trafficking of illicit artificial medicine, firearms, and ammunition, placing Los Chapitos firmly within the cross hairs.
The letter comes as a confrontation continues between the united statesand Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who insists that fentanyl just isn’t, in reality, produced in Mexico.