Former boxing champion Julio César Chávez Carrasco, son of the Mexican boxing legend, was arrested on Monday in Hermosillo after the U.S. government deported him to his home country. Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) accuses him of organized crime and arms trafficking, charges that link him to the Sinaloa Cartel.
The arrest took place at 11:53 a.m. on August 18 in Nogales, Sonora, according to confirmation from the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection. The 38-year-old boxer, standing 1.87 meters tall, was wearing black sweatpants and sweatshirt, a white T-shirt, and red sneakers when he was handed over to Mexican agents in Hermosillo.
Chávez Jr. had appeared in FGR case files since 2019, following a complaint filed by the United States about an arms trafficking cell based in Nogales. Allegedly, Chávez Jr. maintained contact with members of Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by the sons of drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. In January 2023, a federal judge in Hermosillo ordered the boxer’s arrest along with that of other men, including Ovidio Guzmán, alias El Ratón, and Néstor “El Nini” Isidro Pérez Salas — two of the top leaders of Los Chapitos.
The boxer’s downfall began on July 3 in California, where he was arrested after a fight against influencer Jake Paul, in which he participated as a professional. Although he spent much of his time and lived a normal life in the United States, the FGR had been seeking him for years. Six weeks after his arrest, he was handed over at the border to Mexican authorities.
Chávez Jr. had applied for U.S. residency through his marriage to Frida Muñoz Román, a U.S. citizen and widow of Edgar Guzmán, son of El Chapo, who was killed in 2008. The ex-boxer’s family acknowledged that they had known about the Mexican arrest warrant for three years. “We are prepared and we will fight if he is transferred,” said Julio César Chávez, father of the detainee.
Source: El Pais
