A Division of Homeland Safety official with data of the arrest mentioned Zambada was fooled into boarding a personal aircraft certain for the US with the previous drug lord’s son, additionally named Joaquin Guzmán. The official spoke on the situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation. The elder Guzmán and his son Ovidio are imprisoned in the US.
The 2 males detained Thursday are among the many U.S. authorities’s most wished drug traffickers, and the State Division had provided $15 million for data resulting in Zambada’s seize.
The information of Zambada’s arrest was first reported by the Reuters information company.
The elder Guzmán was arrested in 2016 and convicted of a number of drug prices in the US. He’s serving a life sentence in a Colorado maximum-security jail. He and Zambada have been thought of co-founders of the Sinaloa cartel.
“That is big,” mentioned John Callery, a 30-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration who retired in 2022 and pursued “El Mayo” and different Sinaloa cartel chiefs as the pinnacle of the San Diego area division.
Zambada was low key, not like flashy narcos
Zambada, 76, was identified for conserving a low profile and eschewing the flashy life-style of different drug lords whom he outlasted. His sons Ismael and Vicente, alongside along with his brother Jesus “El Rey” Zambada, have been detained and extradited to the US on drug prices a number of years in the past. But their father was by no means detained.
“He was probably the most cautious out of all of them,” Callery mentioned. “I by no means thought the outdated man would ever depart Mexico for any motive.”
“There have been so many operations to attempt to get him up to now, and he was all the time very sensible, very slippery,” Callery added.
“This man was a legend,” mentioned John Feeley, a former U.S. ambassador with intensive expertise in Mexico. Zambada was so elusive, Feeley mentioned, “we’d solely hear about him in whispers.”
Whereas El Chapo was the extra infamous Sinaloa co-founder, Zambada was an equal kingpin who functioned because the group’s operations chief within the cartel’s early years, Feeley mentioned. “He was the logistician, the man who made the trains run,” he mentioned.
Since El Chapo was arrested, his sons — referred to as “Los Chapitos” — have shared management of the cartel with Zambada. However one in all them, Ovidio Guzmán, was arrested by the Mexican military in 2023 and extradited to the US. The U.S. authorities has provided a reward of as much as $10 million for data resulting in the arrest or conviction of the 2 oldest brothers, Iván and Jesús Alfredo, and a $5 million award for the youthful brother, Joaquín.
In line with Callery, “El Mayo” Zambada suffers from diabetes, and he has been ill, however he stays a “godfather” determine within the Mexico drug world — able to brokering offers and sustaining fragile accords between warring teams.
U.S. had focused Sinaloa cartel fentanyl manufacturing
U.S. Legal professional Common Merrick Garland confirmed that U.S. authorities had “taken into custody” each Zambada and the youthful Guzmán on Thursday in El Paso. They face a number of U.S. prices, together with for involvement within the cartel’s “lethal fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” in line with his assertion.
It didn’t present particulars of how the 2 have been detained. They weren’t arrested in Mexico, in line with a senior Mexican official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of the problem was associated to delicate legislation enforcement operations. The operation seemed to be a part of a take care of Guzmán; it was not clear what potential advantages his household may obtain. The 2 males have been arrested in El Paso by the FBI, officers conversant in the operation advised The Washington Publish.
U.S. authorities have aggressively focused the Sinaloa cartel, which is “the most important trafficker of fentanyl into the US,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram mentioned in February.
The artificial opioid has detonated probably the most deadly drug epidemic in U.S. historical past, inflicting tens of hundreds of American deaths up to now few years.
El Chapo’s son Joaquin had been underneath strain from his household to show himself in to U.S. authorities, in line with a former U.S. official with data of the joint investigation by the FBI, DEA and Homeland Safety Investigations brokers. He spoke on the situation of anonymity due to the delicate nature of the operation.
The detentions occurred as Republicans are sharpening their assaults on the Biden administration for the fentanyl epidemic as each events gear up for the November presidential election. Previously, Mexico has captured drug kingpins at key political junctures when it sought to enhance relations with Washington. It detained Ovidio Guzmán in January 2023, days earlier than President Biden paid a go to to Mexico.
But it was not clear what function, if any, the Mexican safety forces performed in Thursday’s operation.
Callery mentioned there was a threat that Zambada’s seize might unleash new violence. The trafficker can be able to offer U.S. authorities with data on corrupt Mexican officers, Callery famous. “We’ll see who he’s prepared to surrender,” he mentioned.
The detention of the highest Sinaloa Cartel figures is unlikely to dry up the availability of fentanyl to the US. A lot of those that manufacture the potent opioid are believed to be small-scale producers who provided the cartel.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Division sanctioned two Mexican members of the Jalisco New Era Cartel for alleged involvement within the fentanyl enterprise. The Treasury assertion famous that the group “is likely one of the largest producers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl to the US.”
Joe Evans, who ran the DEA workplace in Mexico when the US labored intently with former president Felipe Calderón to take down drug bosses, mentioned Zambada’s seize marked the bookend for the cartel that has lengthy been probably the most dominant participant. “He had a number of energy,” Evans mentioned.
However new traffickers rapidly step in, he added.
“We have been very efficient at capturing or killing these guys, however they only splinter into new teams,” Evans mentioned. “That’s the historical past of it. You’re taking a man out and it turns into an influence seize as a result of there’s a lot cash in it.”
Miroff reported from Washington. Lorena Rios in Monterrey, Mexico, contributed to this report.
correction
An earlier model of this story mentioned that DEA Administrator Anne Milgram made her assertion on Sinaloa being the principal provider of fentanyl to the US in January. She made that assertion in February. The article has been corrected.
