Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and the son of his former partner Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán were arrested in El Paso, Texas, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) reported.
Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of “El Chapo,” face multiple charges in the United States “for directing the cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” the department said in a statement.
“The Department of Justice has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world,” the document added.
Zambada, 76, is one of Mexico’s most important drug traffickers and co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with “El Chapo,” who was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison.
Following El Chapo’s extradition, his criminal empire was inherited by four of his sons – known as Los Chapitos – who took over his faction of the Cartel and became some of the largest exporters of fentanyl to the United States.
“El Mayo” and Los Chapitos have had a contentious relationship since the extradition of “El Chapo” and the arrest of the two traffickers could trigger instability or even violence in Mexico.
In February, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Zambada with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says is the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45.
The DEA offered a $15 million reward for information leading to the whereabouts of “El Mayo.”
-With information from the Reuters agency.
