Four sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are facing new charges of fentanyl trafficking and other crimes, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Along with the El Chapo sons, 25 members of the Sinaloa cartel are named in the April 4 indictment.

Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Sálazar, also known as the Chapitos, or little Chapos are the sons charged. 

Only one of the four Chapitos charged has been captured. And that was Ovidio Guzmán López, who was arrested in January in the Sinaloa capital of Culiacan. The others remain at large.

"Death and destruction are central to their whole operation," DEA chief Anne Milgram said Friday. She called the Chapitos and the global network they operate "a network that fuels violence and death on both sides of the border."

El Chapo Sons accused of horrific violence 

The court document details brutal methods of torture and executions carried out by El Chapo’s sons and their associates. The cartel used extreme measures to protect their illegal enterprise and intimidate enemies.

The indictment claims a range of torture methods, including electrocution, waterboarding, corkscrews, and hot chilies, were used. 

They tortured and killed people who posed a threat. That includes law enforcement officers and members of rival drug cartels. Anyone who refused to pay the gang was also targeted. 

 Federal officials also detailed how the Chapitos tested the potency of the fentanyl they allegedly produced on their prisoners. 

Some of their victims were fed to tigers, which belonged to Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Sálazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, it alleges.

In another shocking description, the prosecutors accused two of El Chapo's sons of being involved in the capture and murder of two Mexican federal law enforcement officers in 2017.

One of the officers was interrogated and killed while the other was tortured in front of El Chapo's sons by the cartel's hitmen.

El Chapo founded the Sinaloa cartel which is the largest mover of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana trafficked into the US. El Chapo is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.