Travel
Mexican drug lord El Mayo brought to US against his will with El Chapo’s son
In short:
Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was brought to the United States against his will, allegedly by the son of his former partner, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The US ambassador to Mexico has confirmed El Mayo did not travel willingly when he arrived in Texas with Joaquín Guzmán López.
What’s next?
El Mayo is charged in a number of US cases, including in New York and California.
Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was brought to the United States against his will when he arrived in Texas on a plane with the son of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
The US ambassador to Mexico confirmed El Mayo did not willingly travel to the US in July when he arrived with fellow drug lord Joaquín Guzmán López.
El Mayo’s lawyer had earlier claimed that the long-time alleged chief of the Sinaloa cartel had been kidnapped.
But officials had not confirmed that, and El Mayo’s age and apparent ill health led some to speculate he turned himself in.
US ambassador Ken Salazar said: “The evidence we saw … is that they had brought El Mayo Zambada against his will.”
“This was an operation between cartels, where one turned the other one in,” Mr Salazar said.
El Mayo’s faction of the Sinaloa cartel has been engaged in fierce fighting with another faction, led by the sons of El Chapo.
Guzmán López is the half-brother of the factional leaders.
Mr Salazar said no US personnel, resources or aircraft were involved in the flight on which Guzmán López turned himself in, and that US officials were “surprised” when the two showed up at an airport outside El Paso, Texas on July 25.
Frank Pérez, El Mayo’s lawyer, said in a statement in July that “my client neither surrendered nor negotiated any terms with the US government”.
“Joaquín Guzmán López forcibly kidnapped my client,” Mr Pérez wrote. “He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquin. His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head.”
Mr Pérez went on to say that El Mayo, 76, was thrown in the back of a pick-up truck, forced onto a plane and tied to the seat by Guzmán López.
In early August, El Mayo made his second appearance in federal court in Texas after being taken into US custody the week before.
Guzmán López, 38, had apparently long been in negotiations with US authorities about possibly turning himself in.
He has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in federal court in Chicago.
US officials said they had almost no warning when Guzmán López’s plane landed at an airport near El Paso. Both men were arrested and remain jailed.
They are charged in the US with various drug crimes.
Mr Salazar said the plane had taken off from Sinaloa — the Pacific coast state where the cartel is headquartered — and had filed no flight plan.
He stressed the pilot wasn’t American, nor was the plane.
The implication is that Guzmán López intended to turn himself in, and brought El Mayo with him to procure more favourable treatment, but his motives remain unclear.
El Mayo was thought to be more involved in the day-to-day operations of the cartel than his better-known and flashier boss, El Chapo, who was sentenced to life in prison in the US in 2019.
El Mayo is charged in a number of US cases, including in New York and California.
Prosecutors brought a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as the “principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing enormous quantities of narcotics into the United States”.
The capture of El Mayo and Guzmán López — and the idea that one cartel faction had turned in the leader of the other — raised fears that the already divided cartel could descend into a spiral of violent infighting.
That prompted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to take the unusual step of issuing a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other.
AP
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