Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr was a cartel henchman, Mexican prosecutors claim

The Guardian

07-07-2025

The Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr was a henchman for the Sinaloa drugs cartel and used his skills to pummel rival gang members 'like a punchbag' before his recent arrest in 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) agents, who cited cartel affiliations, multiple criminal convictions and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and organized crime.
Deportation proceedings are under way, Ice officials have said.
The new details of his alleged crimes in Mexico were revealed in an indictment issued Friday by the country's office of the attorney general (abbreviated FGR for its Spanish name) – and reported by the newspaper Reforma via the online outlet mimorelia.com.
The court filing states that Chávez was in the service of Néstor Ernesto Pérez Salas, a leader of the Sinaloa cartel known as 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 mother of a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán – would be directed to beat them as if they were punchbags he used during training for his boxing career, the document alleges.
The information, the FGR said, came from phone calls intercepted between December 2021 and June 2022 using wiretaps.
Additional evidence, including immigration records, was obtained from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Ice. According to immigration authorities, Chávez entered the US in August 2023 on a legally held visa, but it expired in February 2024.
Chávez then applied for legal permanent US residency based on his marriage to Frida Muñoz, an American citizen.
Muñoz's prior relationship with one of El Chapo's sons drew scrutiny from US officials. Though she has not been charged with any crime, in December 2024, Chávez was reportedly flagged in internal DHS documents as an 'egregious public safety threat', though his removal from the US was not prioritized.
Despite that assessment and a criminal record dating back more than a decade, Chávez was allowed re-entry into the US at the San Ysidro port of entry in California in January under a discretionary parole process approved by Joe Biden's outgoing presidential administration.
Chávez had been convicted of driving while intoxicated in California in 2012. And in January 2024, he was convicted of illegal possession of an assault weapon and manufacturing or importing a short-barreled rifle.
Chávez's most notable sporting feat was winning the World Boxing Council's version of the middleweight title in June 2011. The native of Culiacán, Sinaloa, successfully defended it four times before losing it in September 2012.
His arrest on 2 July occurred in Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood known for its celebrity residences. He was detained five days after he lost to Jake Paul, the YouTuber turned boxer, in a lucrative, heavily promoted fight in Anaheim reported to have taken in $1.5m in gate receipts alone.
The Trump administration has designated the Sinaloa cartel as a foreign terrorist organization.
After Chávez's arrest, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the DHS, criticized the Biden administration for not expelling or detaining him, despite an active arrest warrant for trafficking guns, ammunition and explosives.
'It is shocking the previous administration flagged this criminal illegal alien as a public safety threat but chose to not prioritize his removal and let him leave and come back into our country,' she said in a statement.
McLaughlin's statement said Chávez's status as a 'world-famous' athlete meant nothing to the Trump administration.
'Our message to any cartel affiliates in the US is clear: We will find you and you will face consequences,' the statement said. 'The days of unchecked cartel violence are over.'
In its own statement, the Chávez family expressed 'total and unconditional support' for Julio Jr, who the document described as 'a son, a father and a human who has grappled with multiple challenges in his personal and professional life'.
'We are completely confident in his innocence and quality as a human – as well as in the justice systems of both Mexico and the US,' the family's statement said. 'We hope this situation will resolve itself according to the law and the truth.'
On his X account over the weekend, Chávez's father – now a well-known commentator – republished a post from another user that asserted Julio Jr was in rehab.
The post that the elder Chávez republished also denied Julio Jr belonged to a cartel.
Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting