Zambada’s arrest came after lengthy surrender talks between U.S. authorities and “El Chapo’s” son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the sources said.
But many U.S. officials had given up hope that Joaquin would turn himself in, and were stunned when he sent a last-minute message saying he would arrive with a drug lord U.S. authorities had been pursuing for four decades.
“Mayo was the icing on the cake,” said one U.S. official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrests. “It was not expected at all.”
(Photo: Cuartoscuro)
Guzmán López had convinced Zambada to board the plane by telling him they were flying to look at real estate in northern Mexico, according to the two officials and a former U.S. official.
Reuters was the first to report the arrests, before the Justice Department confirmed late Thursday that the two men had been detained in El Paso. The news agency spoke to current and former officials to piece together a detailed account of the operation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the two agencies that carried out the operation, moved agents from their local offices in El Paso and arrived at the airport just as the private plane was landing, according to a fifth source, a US official who declined to give further details about the arrests.
A worker at Doña Ana County International Airport near El Paso told Reuters he saw a Beechcraft King Air plane land on the runway Thursday afternoon, where federal agents were already waiting.
“Two individuals got off the plane… and were calmly detained,” said the man, who declined to share his name out of fear for his safety.
The unexpected arrest of “El Mayo,” aged around 70, and the way he appears to have been betrayed by Guzman Lopez, aged around 38, has shaken Mexico’s drug world, sparking fears of a bloody rift in the Sinaloa Cartel between the two families that control the group’s largest power bases.
Zambada is accused of being one of the most important drug traffickers in Mexican history, having co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
Reuters could not determine why Guzman Lopez betrayed his father’s longtime associate, though the four officials and former officials said it was likely due to his desire to obtain a more favorable plea deal from U.S. authorities and help his brother, Ovidio, who was arrested and extradited to the United States in 2023.
U.S. authorities have made drug lords key targets, often striking deals with them in exchange for information leading to the capture of other high-ranking cartel figures.
Communication between U.S. officials and Guzman Lopez took place through attorneys, the first official said. Jeffrey Lichtman, who represents both Guzman brothers, declined to comment.
Zambada, who is in a wheelchair, pleaded not guilty Friday in a Texas court to drug trafficking charges, including continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to import narcotics and money laundering. His attorney, Frank Perez, said his client did not come to the United States voluntarily.
Guzman Lopez is due to appear in court next week in Chicago, where he was first charged with drug trafficking about six years ago.
He is one of four sons of “El Chapo” – known as “Los Chapitos” – who inherited the cartel faction from their father. Joaquin and Ovidio have the same mother, while the other two brothers, Ivan and Jesus Alfredo, are the product of “El Chapo’s” first marriage.
In recent years, the brothers have come under fierce pressure from U.S. authorities, who have made them their main targets in the fight against drug trafficking, presenting them and the Sinaloa Cartel as the largest fentanyl traffickers in the United States.
Overdoses from the drug have skyrocketed to become the leading cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 45.
Ray Donovan, a former top official with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), said the defeats suffered by top Sinaloa Cartel bosses in recent times are largely due to their embrace of fentanyl, which has moved up Washington’s political agenda as deaths on the country’s streets increase.
“The number of Americans dying has put a lot more pressure on them,” Donovan said. “Fentanyl has defeated them.”
On Friday, US President Joe Biden welcomed the arrests and vowed to continue fighting “the scourge of fentanyl.”
NEW GENERATION OF DRUG DEALERS
“El Chapo’s” sons are known for being more violent and hot-headed than Zambada, who had a reputation for being a shrewd operator who liked to stay in the shadows. Guzman Lopez was also considered less important than his other three brothers.
U.S. authorities had offered a $15 million reward for the capture of Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa cartel in the late 1980s with “El Chapo.” Guzmán López had a $5 million reward on his head. Both men face multiple charges in the United States.
The first U.S. official cautioned that there are still many unanswered questions about how or why Zambada, an extremely cautious and experienced cartel boss, ended up on the plane.
Security Secretary Rosa Rodriguez said Mexico was informed of the arrests by the U.S. government, but that Mexican authorities were not involved in the operation.
Outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has taken a cautious approach to dealing with powerful cartels, curbing security cooperation with U.S. authorities out of fear that the previous bilateral strategy of going after powerful kingpins was triggering more violence at home.
In October 2019, the Mexican military detained Ovidio but was forced to release him after hundreds of Sinaloa Cartel members blocked roads and exchanged gunfire with soldiers as they laid siege to the city of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa.
The military arrested Ovidio again in January 2023 and he was extradited in September of last year.
Matthew Allen, a former special agent in charge of HSI’s Arizona division who built indictments against Guzmán López and other Sinaloa Cartel figures, said both Zambada and Guzmán López had had periodic conversations with U.S. officials about turning themselves in over the years.
Allen, who maintains regular contact with former HSI colleagues, said many traffickers, especially those of the younger generation, realize that turning themselves in, serving some jail time and then spending their wealth is a better option than risking death at the hands of rivals in Mexico or capture by authorities, which can lead to life in prison. Some informants are allowed to enter witness protection programs.
“They see that this way you can serve your sentence and not have to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life,” he said.
(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic in London; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in New York, Laura Gottesdiener and Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City; Editing by Raul Cortes Fernandez)
