Boxer Chavez Jr expected to be deported to Mexico to serve sentence, Sheinbaum says
MEXICO CITY, July 4 (Reuters) – President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday she expects boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr to be deported to Mexico to serve time for arms trafficking and organized crime after being detained in Los Angeles by US immigration authorities.
The US Department of Homeland Security said Chavez was found to be in the country illegally last week after he made false statements on a 2024 application for permanent residence based on his marriage to a US citizen.
Sheinbaum, in her morning press conference, said Mexico has had an arrest warrant for him since 2023, stemming from an investigation that began in 2019.
He’s been in the US most of the time so we haven’t been able to get him into custody. So that he’s deported and he can serve his sentence, that’s what the attorney general’s office is working on, she told reporters.
On Thursday, Homeland Security said the 39-year-old boxer, son of Mexican world champion Julio Cesar Chavez, has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by Washington.
Michael Goldstein, Chavez’s lawyer, said more than two dozen immigration agents arrested the boxer at his home in the Studio City area of Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“These allegations are ridiculous and appear to be a headline to terrorize the community,” Goldstein said. His family in Mexico said in a statement they “fully trust his innocence.
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His wife, Frida Munoz Chavez, was previously married to the son of former Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is serving a life sentence in a US prison. The son, Edgar, was killed in 2008.
Sheinbaum didn’t know if Chavez Jr had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Chavez lost to influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul, 28, last weekend in front of a sold out crowd in Anaheim, California, by unanimous decision after 10 rounds.
He won the WBC middleweight title in 2011 but lost it the following year.
His career has been marred 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.
