Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel Leader Arrested in Texas

 

One of the world’s most powerful drug lords, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by U.S. federal agents in El Paso, Texas.

Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organization together with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is incarcerated in the United States.

Guzman’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was also arrested Thursday along with Zambada, the U.S. Justice Department said.

In February, Zambada was charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, a drug more powerful than heroin that is believed to be responsible for the opioid crisis in the United States.

Citing Mexican and U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reports that Zambada was tricked into boarding the plane by a high-ranking Sinaloa operative, following a months-long operation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI.

Believing he was going to inspect clandestine airstrips in southern Mexico, Zambada was instead flown to a private airport outside El Paso, Texas.

Lopez was also arrested along with Zambada by federal agents when the plane landed.

Officials said Zambada was “lured” onto a private plane under “false pretenses” by Lopez, the New York Times reported.

Mexico’s Security Minister, Rosa Rodriguez, said her government had been informed of the detention of Zambada and Lopez by the U.S. government, but that Mexican authorities were not involved in the operation to arrest them.

The president of Mexico has asked the United States for maximum transparency regarding the capture.

“The United States government must provide a full report, not just general statements… there must be transparency,” Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said in his regular morning press conference on Friday.

Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas said Lopez turned himself in to U.S. authorities and turned against Zambada because he “blamed Mayo for his father’s capture.”

In a written statement Thursday evening, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the two men lead “one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world.”

“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Department of Justice will not rest until every single leader, member, and associate of the cartel responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” he added.

According to U.S. prosecutors, the Sinaloa cartel is the largest drug supplier in the United States.

U.S. authorities have already reported that fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had offered a reward of up to $15 million (£12 million) for Zambada’s capture.

During Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s trial in 2019, his lawyers accused Zambada of bribing “the entire” Mexican government in exchange for the freedom to live openly without fear of prosecution.

“In truth [Guzman] “He didn’t control anything,” Guzman’s attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, told jurors.

“Mayo Zambada did it,” he said.

According to the U.S. State Department, Zambada also owns several legitimate businesses in Mexico, including “a large dairy farm, a bus line, and a hotel,” as well as real estate.

In addition to the fentanyl charges, he also faces charges in the United States of drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, money laundering and organized crime.

According to the documents, he is scheduled to appear next Wednesday in El Paso court.

In May, Zambada’s nephew, Eliseo Imperial Castro, known as “Cheyo Antrax,” was killed in an ambush in Mexico. He was also wanted by U.S. authorities.

Zambada is probably the largest drug trafficker in the world and certainly the most influential in the Americas.

He had managed to evade authorities for decades, and his arrest came as a shock to Mexico.

In a statement, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Sinaloa cartel “pioneered the production of fentanyl and for years trafficked it into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and devastating countless communities.”

FBI Director Chris Wray said the arrests are “an example of the FBI and our partners’ commitment to dismantling violent transnational criminal organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel,” he said.

As more information emerges, Zambada’s arrest will undoubtedly be hailed by President Joe Biden’s administration as one of the DEA’s most significant operations in recent memory.

Zambada was one of the founders of the Sinaloa Cartel following the collapse of the Guadalajara Cartel in the late 1980s.

Although Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was the public face of the organization and the more well-known of the two men, many believed that El Mayo was actually its true leader.

Not only was he ruthless, he was also innovative: he created and maintained some of the first links with the Colombian cartels, which flooded the United States with cocaine and heroin.

And most recently, fentanyl.

His leadership of the criminal empire has endured despite changes in presidency in Mexico and the United States, despite repeated anti-drug offensives by successive governments, and despite continued attempts by his enemies in other drug trafficking organizations to oust him.

This is no small feat in the violent, dangerous and treacherous criminal world in which he operated for many years as an unassailable boss.

Yet this extraordinary resilience appears to have run out in El Paso, Texas, a city devastated by an influx of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, much of which was smuggled in by his organization.

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