El Mayo, a co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel and the son of “El Chapo,” was detained in Texas

NBC News

Following the unexpected capture of two suspected drug lords from Mexico in Texas, three law enforcement officials indicate that investigators think one of the men may have deceived the other into boarding an aircraft for the United States.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday’s arrests in El Paso of the co-founder of the cartel and the son of jailed Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who helped manage the group for three decades.

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Both Joaquín Guzmán López and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, have been indicted in the United States and are facing “multiple charges” related to the criminal organization based in Mexico, which includes “its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” according to a statement released by Garland.

Authorities are investigating whether Guzmán López deceived “El Mayo” Zambada into boarding the jet that was headed for the United States, according to the three law enforcement sources. The two men were detained and arrested in El Paso after the jet initially traveled to New Mexico.

Authorities flew Guzmán to Chicago, while Zambada stayed in El Paso and is scheduled to appear in federal court on Friday.

According to the sources, one possibility is that Guzmán had made the decision to turn himself in and believed he would be treated better if he brought along a significant other cartel member.

According to Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and HSI worked together to target the cartel, which resulted in the arrests.

The notorious criminal known as “El Chapo” was apprehended in Mexico, extradited to the United States and is presently serving a life sentence plus 30 years that was imposed in New York in 2019.

The Drug Enforcement Administration stated in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment that the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels “are at the heart” of the synthetic drug epidemic in the United States, which includes fentanyl and methamphetamine.

“The deadliest drug threat our nation has ever faced is fentanyl, and the Justice Department won’t stop until every single cartel leader, member, and associate that poisoned our neighborhoods is brought to justice,” Garland stated in the statement.

In January 2023, Ovidio Guzmán López, another son of “El Chapo,” was arrested in Mexico on suspicion of being a cartel boss. He has since been extradited to the United States to face accusations related to drug trafficking and money laundering. In September, he entered a not-guilty plea.

In 2018, Joaquín and Ovidio Guzmán López were accused by a federal grand jury on allegations of conspiring to smuggle cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana into the United States.

The Justice Department announced at the time that Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López, and two additional sons of “El Chapo” were also indicted by a federal grand jury last year.

Iván Guzman Salazar and Alfredo Guzman Salazar, the other two sons, are still at large. According to federal officials, the four sons dubbed the “Chapitos,” inherited their father’s drug-trafficking networks and his cartel faction.

The four sons ran “Los Chapitos,” one of the four criminal groups that make up the Sinaloa Cartel, according to the DEA.

According to the DEA’s 2024 report, the brothers encouraged the cartel to make fentanyl a bigger part of their operations.

“Since at least 2012, the Sinaloa Cartel has been manufacturing large amounts of fentanyl, but the Chapitos group is the one who has emphasized the drug’s significance to the cartel’s “bottom line,'” according to the research.

According to the DEA, Zambada García also referred to as “El Mayo,” co-founded the cartel and served as one of its co-heads for thirty years. He is in charge of one of the cartel’s four groups.

Formerly a companion of “El Chapo,” Zambada García has recently been embroiled in an internal conflict with the “Chapitos,” according to the agency.

In the US, Zambada García is also facing charges. The Justice Department stated at the time that he was most recently accused of a fentanyl distribution conspiracy in a superseding indictment that was filed in February.

Zambada García’s arrest, according to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, “targets the core of the cartel that supplies most narcotics, such as methamphetamine and fentanyl, that murder Americans all around the country.”

“One of the DEA’s most sought fugitives, El Mayo, is being held tonight and will soon be brought before a U.S. court of law to face justice,” Milgram stated in a statement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 107,543 people died in the United States last year from drug overdoses; of those, 74,702 were thought to be caused by synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. With an anticipated 36,251 deaths, psychostimulants like methamphetamine accounted for the second-highest number.

According to the DEA’s report this year, the Jalisco and Sinaloa gangs manufacture fentanyl in Mexican laboratories and then import it into the United States.

The “Chapitos” made a public show about the supposed orders from both cartels to their subordinates to cease fentanyl trafficking last year, but the DEA came to the conclusion that “The prohibition is most likely a ploy for publicity.”

“Fentanyl was found at the border in 2023 in amounts comparable to or greater than those found in previous years, and no DEA field office reported that the drug was becoming harder to get or more expensive, two indicators that would suggest a decline in supply,” it stated.

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