The
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the
United States Department of the Treasury named him a "Key Lieutenant" of his father and the Sinaloa Cartel in a 2012 sanctions
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act ("Kingpin Act"). It is widely reported that Guzmán López took on a prominent role of the
Sinaloa Cartel after his father's arrest. In 2019, the
Associated Press reported that he leads the cartel along with his brothers Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, and
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. In July 2017, the
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia empaneled a
grand jury that formally indicted both Ovidio Guzmán López and his brother Joaquín Guzmán López on charges of participating in a conspiracy to traffic
cocaine,
methamphetamine and
marijuana since 2008. The
sealed indictment was filed 2 April 2018. On 12 December 2018, the indictment was unsealed for the limited purpose of disclosure in an
extradition proceeding pursuant to the
Jencks Act. Judge
Rudolph Contreras ordered the full unsealing of the indictment on 13 February 2019.
2019 capture and release On 17 October 2019, members of the
National Guard briefly arrested Ovidio Guzmán López in
Culiacán, Sinaloa, setting off
several gun battles in the city. Heavily armed cartel gunmen (numbering over 600) threatened mass civilian deaths, including an attack to the apartment complex housing the relatives of the local military personnel. Hours later, Ovidio Guzmán was freed, with
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador saying he supported the decision in order to "prevent more bloodshed". López Obrador later said he ordered the release to prevent the killing of 200 people. On 8 May 2020, Santiago Nieto, head of Mexico's
Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), confirmed that the Government of Mexico froze Ovidio Guzmán's assets, stating, "We have frozen the accounts of Ovidio and of 330 people linked to the cartel and have filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office. We have also found irregularities."
2023 recapture On 5 January 2023, the authorities arrested Guzmán López in the Jesús María district of
Culiacán. The arrest was credited to a joint intelligence effort between Mexico and the US military named
Operation Mongoose Azteca. US Intelligence spent months intercepting communications between members of the Cartel. Mexico authorities were able to use that information to locate the movements of Ovidio. According to eyewitness accounts, Guzmán López had a family party the evening before he was arrested. The military executed a
pre-dawn raid on Guzmán López's residence that used a helicopter and convoy of ground vehicles and apprehended him within 10 hours of entry. Reports of his arrest were later confirmed by Defense Secretary
Luis Cresencio Sandoval, who stated that personnel from the Army, National Guard, Secretariat of National Defense and Secretariat of the Navy had captured him and also managed to successfully transport him to Mexico City, where he was then taken to offices of the Attorney General's organized crime special prosecutor. An additional 17 suspected cartel members were also taken into custody in the initial operation. In a press conference, Foreign Secretary
Marcelo Ebrard confirmed that there was an extradition request for Guzmán López to face trial in the United States, but Ebrard noted that he was also facing criminal charges in Mexico. Sinaloa Governor
Rubén Rocha Moya called for the public to shelter in place. Unrest led to the closure of
Culiacán International Airport as two planes at the airport—an airliner operated by
Aeroméxico and a military aircraft—took gunfire. Shootouts were also reported on the runway.
Aeroméxico diverted planes away from the international airports in
Los Mochis and
Mazatlán as well. Attacks on two trucks on
Highway 15 in neighboring
Sonora prompted Aeroméxico to also cancel flights from
Ciudad Obregón International Airport. Regular service at all the affected airports was restored during the morning of 6 January. Looting was reported in parts of Culiacán, and numerous businesses and banks announced temporary closures across the state. Journalists in the area reported multiple
carjackings and demands for car keys. Among the victims were an infantry colonel and his four escorts, who were ambushed and killed by cartel members in
Escuinapa, Sinaloa. A report issued by the
Secretariat of National Defense put the forces used in the operation at 3,586 soldiers. The Secretariat also claimed that in the course of the operation "four
.50 caliber Barrett rifles, six 50 caliber machine guns, 26 long arms, 2 handguns, magazines, cartridges, various tactical equipment and 13 operational vehicles" were seized. == Post-recapture ==