Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s
Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of another infamous cartel
leader, were arrested by US authorities in Texas on Thursday, the US Justice
Department said.
A leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel for decades alongside Joaquín “El
Chapo” Guzmán, Zambada is one of the most notorious drug traffickers in the
world and known for running the cartel’s smuggling operations while keeping a
lower profile.
A Mexican federal official told The Associated Press that Zambada and
Guzmán López arrived in the United States on a private plane and turned
themselves in to authorities. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized discuss the matter.
The US government had offered a reward of
up to 15 million dollars for information leading to the capture of Zambada, who
eluded authorities for decades.
Zambada and Guzmán López oversaw the trafficking of “tens of thousands of
pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence,” FBI
Director Christopher Wray said, adding that now they will "face justice in
the United States.”
“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,”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Mexican authorities didn't immediately comment on the arrests.
US officials have been seeking Zambada's capture for years, and he has
been charged in a number of US cases. He was charged in February in the Eastern
District of New York with conspiring to manufacture and distribute the
synthetic opioid. Prosecutors said he was continuing to lead the Sinaloa
cartel, “one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in
the world.”
Zambada, one of the longest-surviving capos in Mexico, was considered the
cartel's strategist, more involved in day-to-day operations than his flashier
and better-known boss, “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to
life in prison in the US in 2019 and is the father of Guzmán
López.
Zambada is an old-fashioned capo in an era of younger kingpins known for
their flamboyant lifestyles of club-hopping and brutal tactics of beheading,
dismembering and even skinning their rivals. While Zambada has fought those who
challenged him, he is known for concentrating on the business side of
trafficking and avoiding gruesome cartel violence that would draw attention.
In an April 2010 interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, he
acknowledged that he lived in constant fear of going to prison and would
contemplate suicide rather than be captured.
“I’m terrified of being incarcerated,” Zambada said. “I’d like to think
that, yes, I would kill myself.”
The interview was surprising for a kingpin known for keeping his head
down, but he gave strict instructions on where and when the encounter would
take place, and the article gave no hint of his whereabouts.
Zambada reputedly won the loyalty of locals in his home state of Sinaloa
and neighboring Durango through his largess, sponsoring local farmers and
distributing money and beer in his birthplace of El Alamo.
Although little is known about Zambada’s early life, he is believed to
have gotten his start as an enforcer in the 1970s.
By the early 1990s, he was a major player in the Juarez cartel,
transporting tons of cocaine and marijuana.
Zambada started gaining the trust of Colombian traffickers, allegiances
that helped him come out on top in the cartel world of ever-shifting alliances.
Eventually he became so powerful that he broke off from the Juarez cartel, but
still managed to keep strong ties with the gang and avoided a turf war. He also
developed a partnership with “El Chapo” Guzman that would take him to the top
of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Zambada’s detention follows some important arrests of other Sinaloa cartel
figures, including one of his sons and another son of “El Chapo” Guzmán, Ovidio
Guzmán López. Zambada's son pleaded guilty in US federal court in San Diego in
2021 to being a leader in the Sinaloa cartel.
In recent years, Guzman’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as
the little Chapos, or “Chapitos” that has been identified as a main exporter of
fentanyl to the US market.
They were seen as more violent and flamboyant than Zambada. Their
security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November.
Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested and extradited to the US last year. He pleaded
not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago in September.
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, said
Zambada’s arrest is important but unlikely to have much impact on the flow of
drugs to the US Joaquín Guzmán López was the least influential of the four sons
who made up the Chapitos, Vigil said.
“This is a great blow for the rule of law, but is it going to have an
impact on the cartel? I don’t think so,” Vigil said.
“It’s not going to have a dent on the drug trade because somebody from
within the cartel is going to replace him,” Vigil said.