Joaquin Guzman No Longer in Federal Prison Custody as Ovidio Guzman Returns to Detention in Chicago

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Ovidio Guzmán was removed from the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons on July 23, just two days before his brother Joaquín landed at a New Mexico airport along with "El Mayo" Zambada. He was being held at Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center awaiting trial following his extradition to the US last year. 

Absent from the BOP inmate locator for almost 3 months, Ovidio returned to the system this week. Seemingly switching places with his brother Joaquin Guzman-Lopez who surrendered and was being represented by the same attorney in the same courtroom as his brother.

Frank Perez, Zambada's attorney, released a letter from the Sinaloan drug lord claiming he was the victim of a kidnapping in Mexico by Joaquin Guzman after being lured to a "meeting" to settle political issues between Governor Ruben Moya Rocha and the late Hector Cuen Ojeda, who was killed the same day of the meeting.

"El Mayo's" letter also claims that at least two of his bodyguards, a current and a former Sinaloa municpical police officers were ambushed and killed that day as well. The government's version of the attempted carjacking robbery at a gas station that resulted in Cuen's shooting death has been investigated and dropped by federal authorities.

BOP records on Oct. 17, 2024

Since July 25, Joaquin's lawyer has denied that his client had any deal made with US authorities. US law enforcement has officially denied this as well, especially following claims of his kidnapping of "El Mayo" to bring him across the border where they were arrested by FBI, HSI and CBP agents.

But the precense of authorities at the small airport in New Mexico, Ovidio's random release just days before and now evidence of this move from custody makes it most likely a deal or notification of some kind took place between the sons of "El Chapo" and the US feds.

The Sinaloa Governor claims to have been attending a baseball game in Los Angeles, California that day. He claims to have flown on the private jet belonging to a friend and business associate of his. 

Sources from the Department of Supervision and Intelligence of the Office of Customs and Border Protection in the United States (CBP) revealed to Proceso via journalist Luis Chaparro that there is no entry in the name of Rubén Rocha Moya to the country on the date that he claims to have entered Los Angeles.

Sources conducted an exhaustive search using the full name of the Sinaloa governor, a search using his partial name and using his date of birth to find his entry record, but the system returned no results.

As proof of his stay in Los Angeles, Rocha presented the flight log of the Lear 45 aircraft with registration XASKA owned by businessman Jesús Vizcarra Calderón.

Joaquín has appeared in the BOP system with the inmate number 08260-506, however, it now shows that he has not been in BOP custody since October 16, 2024.

Sources BOP, Infobae, Proceso

And just to double check, their father "El Chapo" is still serving Life in ADX Florence Colorado since his conviction in New York in 2019. "El Nini," is still in BOP custody in New York awaiting his trial as well, in the same MDC as "El Mayo" and Genaro Garcia Luna.