U.S. prosecutors say a purported lieutenant of drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has been killed in Mexico.
That disclosure came Wednesday at a Chicago hearing for Héctor Miguel Valencia Ortega's brother. Prosecutors offered no details, including whether the death was accidental.
Guzmán, Ortega and more than a dozen other Sinaloa Cartel leaders have been indicted in the Chicago trafficking case. Guzmán fled a Mexican prison through a tunnel in July. He's still at large.
Ortega's brother is scheduled to change his plea to guilty on Nov. 20. Édgar Manuel Valencia Ortega is nicknamed "El Zorro," Spanish for "The Fox." Agents arrested him after he arrived in Las Vegas in 2013 on a flight from Mexico.
Judge Rubén Castillo extended condolences to him on his brother's death during Wednesday's hearing.