SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- Ismael Mario Zambada García, also known as “El Mayo”, founding figure of the Sinaloa Cartelreportedly surrendered to U.S. authorities on Thursday, July 25, in the state of Texas.
He hoodalong with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, brother of Ovidio, son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, are now in the custody of U.S. authorities.
According to the U.S. State Department, Zambada has built an empire to launder drug money, which includes several legitimate businesses in Mexico: “a large dairy company, a bus line and a hotel,” as well as real estate assets.
El Mayo faces multiple charges in the North American country “for leading the cartel’s criminal operations, including its lethal fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” the Department said in a statement.
The Cuban brother-in-law
El Mayo’s entry into drug trafficking is shrouded in mystery, and is largely linked to Cuban Antonio Cruz Vázquez, the man who ended up marrying his sister.
Cruz was born in Cuba before Fidel Castro’s victory in 1959. After Castro took power, he worked as a policeman before leaving Cuba and turning up in Miami.
“Niko”, as he was popularly called, was a drug dealer who is said to have taught his brother-in-law Ismael Zambada everything about the business, and was therefore allegedly the precursor to the creation of the Sinaloa Cartel, the second most powerful criminal group in Mexico.
“The one who really introduced him to the world of drugs is a Cuban man, Antonio Cruz,” said journalist Anabel Hernández in an interview with Infobae Mexico.
After emigrating to the United States, he began his career as a drug trafficker and later arrived in Mexico, where he met Ismael’s sister, Modesta, whom he married.
At that time, the Zambada family was in total poverty and El Mayo worked washing truck tires in Culiacán.
“This Cuban comes to change the lives of the Zambada family,” he said. Hernandez.
“Antonio Cruz Vázquez was Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada’s teacher and was the one who introduced him to the world of drugs when he was not yet 20 years old. ‘Niko’ was his brother-in-law, he was married to his sister Modesta, as ‘El Mayo’ revealed to the lawyer Gaxiola in many of their conversations,” wrote the researcher in the book The traitor.
Niko gave Ismael and his family luxury cars and provided them with all the comforts.
A boss in Los Angeles
By the 1970s, Antonio Cruz had built up a presence in Los Angeles and was trafficking in Las Vegas and other US cities.
So, El Mayo became a major drug trafficker in Los Angeles.
From there he found a corridor to Tijuana, which he used to transport drugs for his Cuban brother-in-law.
His life was divided between the United States and Tijuana. However, Cruz was arrested in 1978 along with several of his collaborators.
The Cuban’s ostentatious life of luxury made him easily located by the US authorities.
Having moved his empire to Culiacán, El Mayo consolidated the Sinaloa Cartel and spent more than 50 years operating in drug trafficking, without being arrested, until this week.
The Sinaloa cartel became established in the 1990s. By then, it had allied itself with other cartels and was transporting tons of cocaine and marijuana, according to US authorities.
Over time, he became so powerful that he also established an alliance with “El Chapo” Guzmán, which would take him and him to the top of the Sinaloa Cartel.
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