Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, the former middleweight boxing champion and son of one of Mexico’s most revered fighters, has been deported from the United States over his alleged ties to the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

Chavez Jr, 39, has been imprisoned in Hermosillo in the northern state of Sonora, Mexico, and is facing charges of arms and drugs trafficking.

Prosecutors believe Chavez Jr acted as a henchman for the Sinaloa cartel – one of the world’s most powerful crime syndicates that was designated a foreign terrorist organisation earlier this year.

An arrest warrant was issued in 2023 following a four-year-long investigation.

Chavez Jr was arrested last month by Immigration Customs Enforcement officers in Studio City, California, 10 miles north of Los Angeles, days after being beaten by Jake Paul, a social media influencer turned professional boxer, in an exhibition bout.

Ronald Johnson, the US ambassador to Mexico and former CIA officer, shared a photograph on social media of Chavez Jr being led away by armed officers from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).