Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr deported from US over alleged cartel ties
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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. stands accused of serving as a henchman for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MEXICO CITY – Former champion boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has been detained in Mexico after deportation by the United States to face shock charges of involvement with a drug cartel, Mexican authorities said on Aug 19.
The son of boxing icon Julio Cesar Chavez stands accused of serving as a henchman for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, which Washington designated a foreign terrorist organisation in 2025, and of trafficking firearms and explosives.
According to Mexican media, which claim to have had access to the case files, Chavez was allegedly a “hitman” used to punish members of the cartel.
“He hangs them (and) grabs them like a punching bag,” the Reforma newspaper reported, citing testimony in the prosecutor’s documents.
The Attorney General’s Office has withheld details of the indictment.
Chavez was handed over on Aug 18 and transferred to a prison in Mexico’s north-west Sonora state, according to information on the country’s National Detention Registry.
“He was deported,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters, adding there was an active arrest warrant for the 39-year-old in Mexico.
US authorities arrested Chavez in July for being in the US illegally.
They also said he was wanted in Mexico for alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel, one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organisations by the US.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees US immigration enforcement, said Chavez had entered the US legally in 2023 on a tourist visa that was valid until February 2024.
He applied for permanent residency in April 2024 “based on his marriage to a US citizen, who is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman,” DHS said in its July 3 arrest announcement.
His extradition comes as US President Donald Trump cracks down on immigrants as part of a promise to deport millions of people.
Chavez’s arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles occurred just days after his lopsided loss to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul before a sell-out crowd in California.
Once a top-rated boxer, Chavez won the World Boxing Council middleweight title in 2011 and successfully defended it three times.
He owns a record of 54-7 with one draw, but his career has also included multiple suspensions and fines for failed drug tests.
DHS said that in addition to the active warrant in Mexico, Chavez had criminal convictions in the US, including for possession of an assault weapon, in January 2024 in Los Angeles. AFP
