Drug
The drug baron "El Mayo" was betrayed from the inside - tricked with fake travel
Nora Fernstedt
Updated 00.23 | Published 00.19
The drug lord "El Mayo" boarded a private plane to go and look at properties.
Then the flight turned north.
The cartel leader was arrested - and none other than "El Chapo's" son seems to have had a hand in the game.
Quick version
The arrest of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, leader of the powerful Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, is a feather in the cap for the United States.
Despite the fact that Zambada has been involved in large-scale international drug trafficking throughout his adult life, he has not spent a single day in prison.
But now that's over. On Thursday, "El Mayo" was arrested in Texas.
He was arrested along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of the notorious co-founder and former cartel boss “El Chapo” who was arrested in 2016 and is serving a life sentence in the United States.
The witness: Seemed arranged
But how could the cartel leader Zambada end up in the hands of the United States - after several decades at large?
According to information provided to the New York Times, it was Joaquín Guzmán López who persuaded Zambada to accompany him on a private plane to look at properties.
But in the air the plane changed course. It swung north, over the American border.
The men were then arrested at a small airport outside the border city of El Paso in Texas.
- Two people got off the plane and were calmly arrested by federal police who were waiting here. It seemed quite calm and organized, an anonymous employee at the airport told Reuters.
Blamed for fentanyl crisis
Since the verdict against "El Chapo" fell in 2019, the police in the United States have tried to persuade his son to surrender.
Why he chose to do it now, and to trick Zambada with him, is unclear.
But the arrests are hailed as a huge victory for the American justice system - not least because both Zambada and El Chapo's son are singled out as responsible for the fentanyl crisis that has hit the country in recent years. The use of the drug has increased sharply and led to a number of deaths.
"Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Department of Justice will not rest until every single cartel leader and member responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable," US Secretary of State Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Invisible leader
The US narcotics police DEA has previously issued a reward of SEK 150 million to whoever had information leading to Zambada's arrest.
In February, Zambada was indicted by a New York prosecutor on suspicion of being behind the explosive spread of fentanyl.
The authorities have struggled for a long time to prosecute him. Unlike his former crony "El Chapo", "El Mayo" has avoided the limelight.
On the contrary, he has lived a "rustic and simple" life at home on his farm El Alamo in Sinaloa.
The demand from Mexico: "Transparency"
On Friday, a federal judge in El Paso ordered Ismael Zambada to be held without bail.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez will also appear in a Chicago court in the coming days.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has demanded that the US government present a "full report" on the operation that led to the arrest.
- There must be transparency, he said in his daily press conference according to CNN.
The Sinaloa cartel, named after the Mexican state where the group was formed in the late 1980s, is one of the most powerful criminal groups in the world.
Every year, it brings in billions of dollars by smuggling drugs into the United States, and further around the world.
When "El Chapo" was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019, his four sons were given leading positions in the cartel.
In 2023, another of his sons, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, was arrested in Mexico. He was then extradited to the United States.
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