A strong Mexican drug cartel chief who eluded authorities for many years was duped into flying into the U.S., the place he was arrested alongside a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in accordance with a U.S. legislation enforcement official conversant in the matter.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada received on an airplane to the U.S. believing he was going elsewhere, mentioned the official, who spoke on the situation on anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the matter. The official didn’t present extra particulars, together with who persuaded Zambada to get on the airplane or the place precisely he thought he was going.
Upon arriving within the El Paso space, Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of infamous drug kingpin “El Chapo,” who was sentenced to life in a U.S. jail in 2019, had been instantly taken into custody by U.S. authorities, officers mentioned.
Zambada appeared in federal courtroom in El Paso Friday morning and has entered a plea of not responsible to slew of drug trafficking fees, courtroom information present. A lawyer listed for Zambada didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail looking for remark Friday.
Zambada, one of the highly effective drug lords on this planet, has been a key goal for the U.S. authorities for years in its bid to take down leaders of the Sinaloa cartel that’s chargeable for trafficking big sums of medication throughout the border. U.S. authorities had provided a reward of as much as $15 million for info resulting in his seize.
Zambada’s arrest “strikes at the heart of the cartel that is responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing Americans from coast to coast,” mentioned U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland mentioned in a press release Thursday night.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mentioned Friday that Mexico was nonetheless awaiting particulars in regards to the arrests and was not concerned within the operation. He hailed the arrests, although he urged others may step in to fill the vacuum. That’s why his administration has targeted on addressing the basis causes of drug use and the related violence, he mentioned.
Mexican Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez mentioned the airplane took off with solely the pilot from the airport in Hermosillo, Mexico. The flight monitoring service Flight Conscious confirmed the airplane stopped transmitting its altitude and pace for about half-hour whereas it was over the mountains of northern Mexico earlier than resuming its course to the U.S. border.
“It is a fact that one person went out from here, three people arrived there,” she mentioned.
Zambada is charged in quite a few U.S. circumstances, together with in New York and California. Prosecutors introduced a brand new indictment towards him in New York in February, describing him because the “principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing enormous quantities of narcotics into the United States.”
One of many longest-surviving capos in Mexico, Zambada was thought of the cartel’s strategist, extra concerned in day-to-day operations than his flashier and better-known boss, “El Chapo.”
Zambada is an old style capo in an period of youthful kingpins recognized for his or her flamboyant life of club-hopping and brutal techniques of beheading, dismembering and even skinning their rivals. Whereas Zambada has fought those that challenged him, he’s recognized for concentrating on the enterprise facet of trafficking and avoiding ugly cartel violence that may draw consideration.
In an April 2010 interview with the Mexican journal Proceso, he acknowledged that he lived in concern of going to jail and would ponder suicide moderately than be captured.
“I’m terrified of being incarcerated,” Zambada mentioned. “I’d like to think that, yes, I would kill myself.”
The interview was shocking for a kingpin recognized for retaining his head down, however he gave strict directions on the place and when the encounter would happen, and the article gave no trace of his whereabouts.
Zambada seemingly received the loyalty of locals in his dwelling state of Sinaloa and neighboring Durango by his largess, sponsoring native farmers and distributing cash and beer in his birthplace of El Alamo.
Though little is thought about Zambada’s youth, he’s believed to have gotten his begin as an enforcer within the Nineteen Seventies. By the early Nineties, he was a serious participant within the Juarez cartel, transporting tons of cocaine and marijuana.
Zambada began gaining the belief of Colombian traffickers, allegiances that helped him come out on high within the cartel world of ever-shifting alliances. Finally he grew to become so highly effective that he broke off from the Juarez cartel, however nonetheless managed to maintain sturdy ties with the gang and averted a turf conflict. He additionally developed a partnership with “El Chapo” Guzman that may take him to the highest of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Zambada’s detention follows some vital arrests of different Sinaloa cartel figures, together with one among his sons and one other son of “El Chapo” Guzmán, Ovidio Guzmán López.
Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested and extradited to the U.S. final yr. He pleaded not responsible to drug trafficking fees in Chicago in September. The Bureau of Prisons inmate locator confirmed Ovidio Guzmán López was launched Tuesday, however Rodríguez mentioned U.S. authorities knowledgeable Mexico he was not freed however simply had his custody modified.
In 2021, Zambada’s son pleaded responsible in federal courtroom in San Diego to being a pacesetter within the Sinaloa cartel.
In recent times, Guzman’s sons have led a faction of the cartel often called the little Chapos, or “Chapitos,” that has been recognized as a most important exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. market. Their safety chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November.
