Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of notorious drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges, days after an astonishing capture in the US.

Guzmán López, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, stood with feet shackled as federal prosecutors in Chicago detailed a five-count indictment that also includes money laundering, conspiracy and weapons charges.

He declined a Spanish interpreter and answered most of US District Judge Sharon Coleman’s questions designed to assess his health and determine whether he understood the proceedings with a simple, “Yes, your honour”.

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

Both men, who face multiple charges in the US, 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 US 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 US in 2019 and is the father of Guzmán López, 38.

In recent years, Guzmán’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the little Chapos, or ‘Chapitos’, that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the US market.

Last year, US prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments against more than two dozen members of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzmán López and his brothers, in a fentanyl-trafficking investigation.

At Tuesday’s brief hearing, security was tight, with mobile phones, laptops and other electronics barred from the courtroom.

Guzmán López remained standing, leaning into the microphone to answer the judge, often with his arms folded behind him.

Guzmán López remained jailed in Chicago and is due back in court on September 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 men’s mysterious capture fuelled theories about how federal authorities pulled it off and prompted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to take the unusual step of issuing a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other.

The US government had offered a reward of up to $US15 million ($23 million) for leading to Zambada’s.

– AAP