Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr.

Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr.

Chávez was arrested for overdue visa and lying on a green card application and will be deported to Mexico, where he faces allegations of being involved in organized crime and arms trafficking, U.S. federal officials said Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said officials determined that Chavez should be arrested the day before his June 27 game against Paul. It is unclear why they waited for action a few days after the high-profile event.

The Department of Homeland Security also said in a statement that Chavez “is also considered a branch of the designated foreign terrorist organization Sinaloa Cartel.”

“The Sinaloa Cartel has an active arrest warrant for trafficking firearms, ammunition and explosives by ICE. This has led the former government to arrest foreigners who violated the crime as a threat to public safety, but chose not to prioritize his evacuation and let him leave and return to our country,” Tricia McLaughlaugh McLaughlin said.

“Under President Trump, no one is above the law, including world-renowned athletes. Our message about any cartel branch in the United States is obvious: we will find you and you will face consequences. The days of unchecked cartel violence are over.”

A spokesman for the Mexican Attorney General’s office told The New York Times that U.S. authorities have notified Mexican officials of the detention of Mexican officials and said: “They have begun the corresponding procedures for extraditioning him to Mexico.” A spokesman added that Chavez’s arrest warrant was issued in March 2023.

According to his attorney, Michael Goldstein, the 39-year-old boxer was picked up by a number of federal agents on Wednesday when he rode a scooter in front of his upscale Los Angeles home in his studio near Hollywood.

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“The current allegations are outrageous and just another title to intimidate the community,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein said he didn’t know where Chavez was detained as of Thursday morning, but he said he and his client would be linked to previous gun holdings on July 7.

Chavez’s family issued a statement Thursday afternoon to support him.

“We have confidence in his innocence,” they said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “We firmly believe that the appropriate course is to allow competent authorities to work without external pressure or speculation.”

Before playing against Paul on June 28, Chávez has been fighting once since 2021, falling to countless lows in the shadow of his father, Julio César Chávez, and is one of the most beloved athletes in Mexican history, one of the most popular athletes in Mexican history and a member of the International Boxing Hall, who have five different world champions in four different world boxing halls.

DHS shared Chavez’s rap sheet in an announcement, including his arrest in 2012, convicted of drunk driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in prison.

It also includes a warrant for arrest against Chavez in January 2023, with the “organized crime crime, the purpose of committing weapons trafficking and creating crimes, is the way for those involved in secret weapons, ammunition, ammunition, cartridges, cartridges, explosives, explosives and weapons, making weapons, weapons, weapons, weapons, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, competitors, and competitors.

He was also arrested on gun charges in January 2024. He was later released on a $50,000 margin and under the conditions of his visit to the residential drug treatment facility. The case is still under trial and Chavez regularly reports his progress.

Chavez separates his time in Mexico and the United States. The Department of Homeland Security said the ice officer detained his overdue tourist visa, which he entered the United States in August 2023 and expired in February 2024.

The agency also said that when Chávez applied for permanent residence on April 2, 2024, he filed multiple fraudulent statements based on his marriage to U.S. citizen Frida Muñoz. She was previously married to Edgar Guzmán López, the son of Sinaloa Cartel and El Chapo Guzmán. Guzmán López was killed in a gunfight in Sinaloa, Mexico in 2008.

– Documents with the Associated Press

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