Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced she expects boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr to soon be deported from the United States to serve a sentence for arms trafficking and organised crime.
Sheinbaum explained on Friday that Mexico has had an arrest warrant for the boxer since 2023, stemming from an investigation initiated in 2019. But Chavez had not previously been arrested because he spends most of his time in the US.
““The hope is that he will be deported and serve the sentence in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said, adding: “That’s the process the attorney general’s office is working on.”
Her statement comes two days after Chavez was detained in Los Angeles by US immigration authorities, after they determined he made fraudulent statements in a 2024 application for permanent residency.
The son of a boxing legend, Chavez appeared last weekend in a sold-out match in Anaheim, California. But he lost to 28-year-old influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a unanimous decision after 10 rounds.
Alleged ties to cartel
Following his arrest, the US Department of Homeland Security said that Chavez is suspected of having ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
The US has designated the group and several other Latin American cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations” as part of a wider effort to staunch cross-border crime.
The administration has also sought to surge deportations in recent years, to make good on US President Donald Trump’s campaign promises.
Michael Goldstein, a lawyer for Chavez, said more than two dozen immigration agents arrested the boxer at his home in the Studio City area of Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“The current allegations are outrageous and appear to be designed as a headline to terrorise the community,” Goldstein said.
Chavez’s family in Mexico said in a statement that they “fully trust his innocence”.
His wife, Frida Munoz Chavez, was previously married to the son of the former Sinaloa Cartel leader, who is serving a life sentence in a US prison, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. That son, Edgar, was assassinated in Culiacan, Mexico, in 2008.
Speaking on Friday, Sheinbaum said she did not know if the boxer had any ties to the cartel.
The son of Mexican world champion fighter Julio Cesar Chavez, Chavez had won the WBC middleweight championship in 2011. He lost the title the following year.
However, his career has been largely overshadowed by controversies, including a suspension after testing positive for a banned substance in 2009 and a fine and suspension after testing positive for marijuana in 2013.
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