CHICAGO — In a case crammed with intrigue, Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of the former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to narcotics, money laundering and firearms charges, with his attorney saying his client has made no deal with US officials.

Guzmán López made a brief appearance in federal court in Chicago. Afterward, attorney Jeffrey Lichtman told reporters, “There is no agreement between Joaquín Guzmán and the government. Period.”

Ever since the stunning news that a plane carrying Guzmán López and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the cartel’s alleged co-founder, flew last Thursday from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, there’s been rampant speculation about what happened – and why.

Lichtman’s statement Tuesday raises new questions about why Guzmán López flew here if he has no cooperation agreement with American authorities.

Did Guzmán López intend to surrender, as the Mexican government said Monday, citing information from US authorities? If so, did he take Zambada along as a bonus for the US? Did Guzmán López and his henchmen serve up the ultimate betrayal by ambushing Zambada and tossing him into the aircraft, as an attorney for the latter said?

US authorities were notified on several occasions Guzmán López was considering surrendering, but it was not until that same day his intention was confirmed without prior notice, according to information from US officials shared with the Mexican government.

The federal government has made no official comment on the circumstances of the flight.

While Guzmán López – known as one of the “Chapitos,” or sons of El Chapo – is charged with several offenses, including one that could provide for the possibility of the death penalty, there is no formal allegation of abduction.

“He’s not being accused of kidnapping,” said Lichtman. “When the government accuses him, then I’ll take notice.”

Lichtman has been cleared to represent both Guzmán López and his brother, Ovidio Guzmán López, who also is facing federal charges. The brothers both have status hearings set for September 30.

Guzmán López, wearing an orange jumpsuit and ankle chains, informed the court he is receiving care for thyroid and high blood pressure problems.

He was indicted on the charges by a federal grand jury in Illinois, according to a statement last year from the US Justice Department.

The court appearance comes after Guzmán López, 38, and Zambada were arrested Thursday by US authorities in El Paso. They face several charges for allegedly leading the criminal operations of what is considered to be one of the world’s most powerful and deadly drug trafficking operations.

Zambada, 76, pleaded not guilty to all charges at his first federal court appearance Friday morning in El Paso and is being held without bond on seven federal criminal counts, including continuing criminal enterprise and money laundering. He is scheduled to appear in person in the same court for a status conference Thursday, according to court documents.

US law enforcement officials told CNN the arrest came after Guzmán López duped Zambada and orchestrated their arrest. Zambada thought the two were flying to northern Mexico to look at real estate, but instead, their small private plane landed north of the border, where US authorities were waiting on the tarmac, officials said.

However, Zambada’s attorney, in a phone conversation and a statement sent to CNN on Sunday, described the incident not as trickery but as a violent kidnapping.

“Joaquín Guzmán López forcibly kidnapped my client. He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquín. His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head,” attorney Frank Pérez said in a statement.

“He was then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and taken to a landing strip. There, he was forced onto a plane, his legs tied to the seat by Joaquín, and brought to the US against his will. The only people on the plane were the pilot, Joaquín and my client.”

Mexico’s president has called on the United States to explain what exactly happened.

“The government of the United States has to give a complete report. It can’t be just general statements,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said last Friday. “There has to be transparency.”

In a news conference Monday, he said Mexico should be trusted.

“We are not going to hide anything. Nothing. There should be confidence in us that we do not establish complicit relationships with anyone in Mexico or abroad. And people should know that,” he said.

The cartel, one of the world’s most powerful narcotics trafficking organizations, is thought to be responsible for the trafficking of vast amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the United States. US Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram said the arrests strike “at the heart of the cartel that is responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing Americans from coast to coast.”

A law enforcement source familiar with the situation told CNN US officials were hesitant to brief Mexican counterparts in advance due to fears the operation could have been compromised. Details on the operation were also highly restricted within the US government until Zambada and Guzmán López were taken into custody, the source said.

A look at the cartel and its leadership

The Sinaloa cartel was founded in the late 1980s and led by El Chapo, who twice escaped from Mexican prisons before being detained by Mexican authorities in 2016.

The cartel has been blamed for having a key role in the drug war that plagued Mexico for years, leaving tens of thousands of people dead, as well as contributing to the ongoing high levels of violence across the country.

In the early 2010s, estimates indicated the cartel controlled roughly 40% to 60% of Mexico’s drug trade, earning as much as $3 billion annually, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

El Chapo was extradited to the US in 2017 and convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder. He is serving a life sentence in US federal prison.

Since then, experts believe the cartel has faced several challenges after breaking into factions – including some led by Zambada and Guzmán’s sons – and with the rise of rival cartels.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said both Zambada and Guzmán López had “eluded law enforcement for decades.”

Zambada was indicted by a northern Illinois grand jury in 2009, according to the US State Department, and faces various criminal charges. In 2021, the US raised the reward for information leading to his arrest to $15 million.

“Ismael Mario Zambada Garcia is the long-time leader of the Zambada Garcia faction of the Sinaloa Cartel,” according to the US State Department. “Zambada Garcia is unique in that he has spent his entire adult life as a major international drug trafficker, yet he has never spent a day in jail.”

Meanwhile, El Chapo’s sons are accused of having “repeatedly and consistently transported lethal amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl,” the Justice Department said last year.

Zambada’s son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, admitted during testimony at Guzmán’s 2018 trial to passing along orders for murders and kidnappings. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2019 by a federal judge in Chicago. He began cooperating with the US government in 2011, prosecutors said in a May 2019 filing.

Three of the five 9/11 defendants at Guantanamo — including alleged mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad — have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

The trial of the five 9/11 conspirators had been stuck in legal delays for a very long time. No details about the specific terms and conditions of the pre-trial agreement have been made public. The other two conspirators who have agreed to the agreement aside from Mohammad are Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.

Last September, ABC News reported that President Joe Biden rejected a set of demands to form a basis for plea negotiations offered by the five defendants.

Biden agreed with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s recommendation not to accept their demands, known as “joint policy principles,” that they wanted prior to entering into plea agreement talks with prosecutors. According to the New York Times, those demands included avoiding solitary confinement and receiving health treatment for injuries the detainees claim were a result of CIA interrogation methods when they were in the CIA’s “black prisons.”

“The 9/11 attacks were the single worst assault on the United States since Pearl Harbor,” a National Security Council spokesperson told ABC News in a statement in September 2023. “The President does not believe that accepting the joint policy principles as a basis for a pre-trial agreement would be appropriate in these circumstances. The Administration is committed to ensuring that the military commissions process is fair and delivers justice to the victims, survivors, families, and those accused of crimes.”

The five detainees, including the alleged mastermind behind the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, were transferred to the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006. Their case has been held up by legal proceedings for years, with no trial date set.

The sheriff for Illinois’ Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office, which employed the former deputy who shot and killed Sonya Massey in her home earlier this month after she called 911 to report a possible intruder, said during public comments Monday night that they had “failed” her.

“Sonya Massey – I speak her name and I’ll never forget it,” Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell said during a “Community Healing & Listening Session” Monday night at Union Baptist Church in Springfield. “She called for help and we failed. That’s all she did: call for help.”

“I’m going to say something right now I’ve never said in my career before: we failed,” Campbell continued. “We did not do our jobs. We failed Sonya. We failed Sonya’s family and friends. We failed the community. I stand here today before you with arms wide open to ask for forgiveness.”

Sean Grayson, the now-former deputy who fatally shot Sonya Massey in her Illinois home July 6 while responding to her 911 call, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and official misconduct in Massey’s death, and remains in custody.

Many attending Monday’s gathering applauded Campbell’s comments, but some expressed fear and outrage concerning law enforcement and community relations in the area.

“I live alone, and even though I already preferred not to call the police, I’m definitely not calling the police now,” Sierra Helmer, a Springfield resident, said Monday. “If I do need help, I should be able to call the police. Police officers are meant to protect and serve, but here in Springfield, apparently, and shown on camera, they harassed and unfortunately kill. Sonya’s tragic death has sparked an outrage in me as a single Black woman who was raised by a Black woman and having many other Black women raise me.”

Helmer’s comments also were met with applause and some cheers from community members.

“I asked Ms. Massey and her family for forgiveness,” Campbell said. “I offer up no excuses. What I do is offer our attempt to do better, to be better.”

“We will probably never know why he did what he did,” Campbell continued, referring to Grayson, “but I’m committed to providing the best service we can to all of you.”

Campbell also said Monday night that he will not resign his position.

“I cannot step down,” he said. “I will not abandon the sheriff’s office at its most critical moment. That will solve nothing. The incident will remain.”

Grayson, 30, and a second, unnamed deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call on July 6 reporting a possible intruder at her Springfield home.

Body camera footage released last week and reviewed by ABC News shows Massey, who was unarmed, telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me” once she answered their knocks on her door.

Grayson responded, “I don’t want to hurt you, you called us.”

Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points to a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”

Massey then pours the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Grayson then shouts at Massey and threatens to shoot her, the video shows, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, at which time Grayson shoots her three times in the face, the footage shows.

The footage is from the point of view of Grayson’s partner, because Grayson did not turn on his own body camera until after the shooting, according to court documents.

A review by Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force. He was fired from his position with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office on July 17, the same day the charges were filed against him.

Massey family attorney Ben Crump has said the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the shooting. However, Chicago ABC station WLS reported last week that the Justice Department told them in a statement that it “is aware of and assessing the circumstances surrounding the tragic officer-involved death of Ms. Sonya Massey and extends condolences to her family and loved ones.”

Grayson himself has a history of problematic behavior. Prior to his time in public law enforcement, he was discharged from the U.S. Army for unspecified “misconduct (serious offense),” according to documents obtained by ABC News.

ABC News also learned that Grayson was charged with two DUI offenses in Macoupin County, Illinois, in August 2015 and July 2016, according to court documents.

James Wilburn, Massey’s father, criticized Sheriff Campbell for his role in Grayson’s employment and called for Campbell to resign at a press conference last week.

“The sheriff here is an embarrassment,” Wilburn said. “[Grayson] should have never had a badge. And he should have never had a gun. He should have never been given the opportunity to kill my child.”