CHICAGO (NEWSnet/AP) — Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug kingpin “El Chapo,” pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges Tuesday, days after being captured in the U.S.

Guzmán López appeared in a Chicago court as federal prosecutors detailed a five-count indictment that also includes weapons charges.

Guzmán López and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel were arrested by U.S. authorities in the El Paso, Texas-area last week, according to the Justice Department.

Both men, who face multiple charges in the U.S., oversaw the trafficking of “tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence,” according to the FBI.

Zambada has eluded U.S. authorities for years. He was thought to be more involved in day-to-day operations of the cartel than his better-known and flashier boss, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019 and is the father of Guzmán López, 38.

In recent years, Guzmán’s sons have led a faction of the cartel has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. market. Last year, U.S. prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments against more than two dozen members of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzmán López and his brothers, in a fentanyl-trafficking investigation.

Guzmán López remained jailed in Chicago and was due back in court on Sept. 30.

Zambada pleaded not guilty last week to various drug trafficking charges and was being held without bond. He’s due back in court later this week.

The U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $15 million for leading to Zambada’s capture.

His detention follows arrests of other Sinaloa cartel figures, including one of his sons and another “El Chapo” son, Ovidio Guzmán López, who pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges in Chicago last year. Zambada’s son pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in San Diego in 2021 to being a leader in the Sinaloa cartel.

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