Martin and his brother, Leobardo, are accused by U.S. authorities of large-scale production of methamphetamine and fentanyl, drugs that kill millions each year in neighboring Mexico.
The drug trafficker was found dead along with two other people on Saturday morning in Elota, which borders Culiacán.
According to US authorities, in November 2022, Martin exchanged a US arsenal for fentanyl.
This week, the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) formally requested information from the United States government about the flight that transported drug traffickers Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to an airfield in New Mexico at the end of July, where they were detained.
Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo, and Joaquín Guzmán López were arrested on July 25 after flying from northern Mexico on a private plane. The kingpin has said he was “ambushed” by his godson Guzmán López, who forcibly kidnapped him in Sinaloa and handed him over to U.S. authorities, while Guzmán’s defense maintains that the rendition was the result of years of negotiations.
The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the information requested is important to obtain “fundamental evidence” and to learn more details of the “illegal flight” with “a plane with cloned registration,” and to determine the “absolutely irregular conduct of the person who piloted that plane.”
“The International Affairs department of the FGR and INTERPOL-Mexico have formally requested the following information from the United States Department of Justice, which has not been provided to date,” the prosecutor’s office said.
According to the agency, the pilot allegedly concealed “information about his flight in Mexican territory until he reached the border,” where he gave notice of his approach and landing in U.S. territory, “where they were already waiting for him,” it added.
Mexican prosecutors said they conducted a police investigation at the “Doña Ana” airport in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, with the authorization of the U.S. government, where Zambada and Guzmán López were arrested.
The intelligence division, he added, has also obtained data on the location of a runway near Culiacán, capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, from where the “clandestine and unreported flight within the national territory” allegedly took off.
The prosecution also said it found several inconsistencies in the investigations initially carried out by the Sinaloa State Prosecutor’s Office, such as the autopsy of Héctor Cué, a missing politician who was supposedly present at the meeting held by Zambada and Guzmán López before their transfer to the United States.
-With information from Reuters.
