The Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr was a henchman for the Sinaloa medicine cartel and used his expertise to pummel rival gang members “like a punchbag” earlier than his current arrest within the US, prosecutors in Mexico have alleged.
Chávez, 39, son of legendary world boxing champion Julio César Chávez Sr and himself a former middleweight titleholder, was arrested in California on Tuesday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) brokers, who cited cartel affiliations, a number of legal convictions and an energetic arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and arranged crime.
Deportation proceedings are below means, Ice officers have mentioned.
The brand new particulars of his alleged crimes in Mexico had been revealed in an indictment issued Friday by the nation’s workplace of the lawyer basic (abbreviated FGR for its Spanish title) – and reported by the newspaper Reforma through the web outlet mimorelia.com.
The court docket submitting states that Chávez was within the service of Néstor Ernesto Pérez Salas, a frontrunner of the Sinaloa cartel often called El Nini, who directed him to beat rival gang members his group had captured.
Salas would order the victims to be tied up then hanged from a ceiling, and Chávez Jr – who married the mom of a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán – could be directed to beat them as in the event that they had been punchbags he used throughout coaching for his boxing profession, the doc alleges.
The data, the FGR mentioned, got here from cellphone calls intercepted between December 2021 and June 2022 utilizing wiretaps.
Further proof, together with immigration data, was obtained from the US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) and Ice. Based on immigration authorities, Chávez entered the US in August 2023 on a legally held visa, but it surely expired in February 2024.
Chávez then utilized for authorized everlasting US residency based mostly on his marriage to Frida Muñoz, an American citizen.
Muñoz’s prior relationship with considered one of El Chapo’s sons drew scrutiny from US officers. Although she has not been charged with any crime, in December 2024, Chávez was reportedly flagged in inside DHS paperwork as an “egregious public security menace”, although his elimination from the US was not prioritized.
Regardless of that evaluation and a legal document relationship again greater than a decade, Chávez was allowed re-entry into the US on the San Ysidro port of entry in California in January below a discretionary parole course of accredited by Joe Biden’s outgoing presidential administration.
Chávez had been convicted of driving whereas intoxicated in California in 2012. And in January 2024, he was convicted of unlawful possession of an assault weapon and manufacturing or importing a short-barreled rifle.
Chávez’s most notable sporting feat was successful the World Boxing Council’s model of the middleweight title in June 2011. The native of Culiacán, Sinaloa, efficiently defended it 4 instances earlier than shedding it in September 2012.
His arrest on 2 July occurred in Studio Metropolis, a Los Angeles neighborhood identified for its superstar residences. He was detained 5 days after he lost to Jake Paul, the YouTuber turned boxer, in a profitable, closely promoted combat in Anaheim reported to have taken in $1.5m in gate receipts alone.
The Trump administration has designated the Sinaloa cartel as a international terrorist group.
After Chávez’s arrest, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the DHS, criticized the Biden administration for not expelling or detaining him, regardless of an energetic arrest warrant for trafficking weapons, ammunition and explosives.
“It’s surprising the earlier administration flagged this legal unlawful alien as a public security menace however selected to not prioritize his elimination and let him go away and are available again into our nation,” she mentioned in an announcement.
McLaughlin’s assertion mentioned Chávez’s standing as a “world-famous” athlete meant nothing to the Trump administration.
“Our message to any cartel associates within the US is evident: We’ll discover you and you’ll face penalties,” the assertion mentioned. “The times of unchecked cartel violence are over.”
In its personal assertion, the Chávez household expressed “complete and unconditional help” for Julio Jr, who the doc described as “a son, a father and a human who has grappled with a number of challenges in his private {and professional} life”.
“We’re utterly assured in his innocence and high quality as a human – in addition to within the justice programs of each Mexico and the US,” the household’s assertion mentioned. “We hope this case will resolve itself in accordance with the legislation and the reality.”
On his X account over the weekend, Chávez’s father – now a widely known commentator – republished a put up from one other consumer that asserted Julio Jr was in rehab.
The put up that the elder Chávez republished additionally denied Julio Jr belonged to a cartel.
Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting
