One of the world’s biggest drug lords, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas.
Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organization with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is currently imprisoned in the United States.
The man arrested with Zambada on Thursday was Joaquin Guzman Lopez, Guzman’s son, the U.S. Justice Department said.
In February, Zambada was charged by US prosecutors with conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, a drug more potent than heroin and blamed for fueling the opioid crisis in the United States.
In a written statement on Thursday evening, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the two men led “one of the most powerful and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world”.
“El Mayo and Guzman Lopez are among a growing list of Sinaloa cartel leaders and associates that the Justice Department is pursuing in the United States,” Garland said.
“Fentanyl is the most deadly drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Department of Justice will not rest until every cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” added Garland, the top law enforcement official in the United States.
US prosecutors say the Sinaloa cartel is the largest supplier of drugs to the United States.
The US government has previously noted that fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has offered a reward of up to $15m (£12m) for information leading to Zambada’s arrest.
While The trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in 2019His lawyers accused Zambada of bribing the “entire” Mexican government in exchange for living openly without fear of prosecution.
“He had no control at all,” Guzman’s attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, told the jury about his client. “Mayo Zambada did,” he asserted.
According to United States Department of StateZambada is also the owner of several legitimate businesses in Mexico, including “a large dairy company, a bus line and a hotel,” as well as real estate assets.
In addition to the fentanyl charges, he faces other charges in the United States, ranging from drug trafficking, murder, kidnapping, money laundering and organized crime.
In May, Zambada’s nephew – Eliseo Imperial Castro, known as “Cheyo Antrax” – was killed in an ambush in Mexico. He is also wanted by US authorities.
Zambada is said to be the world’s biggest drug lord and certainly the most influential man in the Americas.
He had evaded authorities for decades, and so his arrest sent shockwaves across Mexico.
Details of the two men’s arrest remain unclear, but it appears they flew into the United States.
Citing Mexican and US officials, Wall Street Journal report that Zambada was tricked onto the plane by a senior member of the Sinaloa cartel after a months-long operation by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI.
The newspaper reported that Zambada believed he would be checking secret airports in Mexico.
As more information becomes available, Zambada’s arrest is sure to be hailed by President Joe Biden’s administration as one of the DEA’s most significant operations in years.
Zambada co-founded the Sinaloa cartel after the collapse of the Guadalajara cartel in the late 1980s.
While Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is the face of the organization and the more notorious of the two, many believe El Mayo is the true leader of the organization.
Not only was he ruthless, he was also the one who created, created, and maintained some of the earliest connections with Colombian cartels to flood the United States with cocaine and heroin.
And more recently, fentanyl.
His leadership of the criminal empire has continued despite changes in presidents in Mexico and the United States, amid continued anti-drug crackdowns from successive governments and relentless efforts by enemies in other drug trafficking organizations to bring him down.
This was no easy feat in the violent, dangerous and treacherous underworld where he operated as an untouchable drug lord for years.
That extraordinary resilience, however, seems to have been absent in El Paso, Texas — a city ravaged by the synthetic opioid fentanyl, much of it smuggled in by his organization.
