The curtain falls, again, for the ‘Mini Lic’
A federal judge in Virginia gave Dámaso López Serrano five years in prison this Thursday. The so-called ‘Mini Lic’, son of a key ‘El Chapo’ operator, fell into an FBI trap while negotiating the importation of fentanyl from Mexico.
The scene in court was dramatic. López Serrano, wearing a green prison uniform and shaved hair, asked for forgiveness through an interpreter.
“There are no words to express how sorry I am,” he said. “My deepest desire is to return to my family and show them that I have changed.”
They are the same promises he made in 2017, when he turned himself in and pleaded guilty to cocaine and heroin trafficking. On that occasion, his cooperation with the DEA earned him a reduced sentence and eventually probation.
A covert operation that caught him
But freedom did not last long. In 2024, already moved to Virginia, he began negotiating with whom he believed to be a partner. He was an FBI informant.
According to court records, ‘Mini Lic’ claimed to have people in Southern California to distribute the substance. He even mentioned financing the transactions by selling family properties in Mexico.
The capture came at the end of last year, when he thought he had made a purchase for distribution.
This new sentence is being served simultaneously with another five-year sentence for violating his previous supervised release. Then will come five more years under federal surveillance.
The sentence could change another board: extradition to Mexico. Mexican authorities point to him as the intellectual author of the murder of journalist Javier Valdéz in 2017. Until now, the US had refused to extradite him, citing his status as a protected witness.
With his father, ‘El Licensed’, and ‘El Chapo’ serving life sentences in maximum security prisons, the family theater of drug trafficking adds another tragic act. Promises of change collide with harsh reality: the criminal scenario seems to be a script too ingrained to abandon.
