Mexican drug lord, El Chapo’s son arrested in Texas

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in Texas on Thursday after being lured onto a U.S.-bound airplane by son of the notorious cartel chief Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, in line with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and information reviews.

Joaquín Guzmán López, El Chapo’s son, made Zambada García consider he was stepping onto a personal airplane to have a look at some actual property, legislation enforcement officers instructed The New York Times.

Each Guzmán López and Zambada García turned themselves in to authorities upon arrival in El Paso, Texas, a Mexican federal official told The Associated Press.

“The Justice Division has taken into custody two extra alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the vital violent and highly effective drug trafficking organizations on this planet,” Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland mentioned in an announcement.

El Mayo is the co-founder of the cartel. Garland mentioned they be a part of a “rising record” of Sinaloa leaders that the DOJ is “holding accountable in america,” together with El Chapo, considered one of his different sons, Ovidio Guzmán López, and the carte’s alleged lead sicario, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, often called “El Nini.”

Each males arrested Thursday are going through a number of prices within the U.S. for main the cartel’s legal operations, together with its fentanyl manufacturing and distribution.

“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug risk our nation has ever confronted, and the Justice Division won’t relaxation till each single cartel chief, member, and related liable for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Garland mentioned.

The DOJ was providing a reward of as much as $15 million for data resulting in the arrest of Zambada García, who has been evading legislation enforcement for many years, the AP mentioned.

FBI Director Christopher Wray mentioned Zambada García and Guzmán López oversaw the trafficking of “tens of 1000’s of kilos of medication into america.”

Zambada García is among the longest-surviving capos in Mexico and was thought-about the cartel’s strategist, in addition to it is most politically linked chief with a month-to-month price range for bribes of as much as $1 million, per the New York Instances. He has been charged in quite a lot of U.S. circumstances, together with in February the place he was charged with conspiring to fabricate and distribute fentanyl.

In 2010, he spoke with a Mexican journal the place he mentioned he would somewhat commit suicide than go to jail and he lived in fixed worry of being arrested. Zambada García’s son was arrested and pleaded responsible in San Diego in 2021, the AP reported.

Guzmán López and his brother, who has already been arrested, have been believed to led a extra flamboyant operation than Zambada, known as the “Chapitos” or little Chapos.

Mike Vigil, the previous head of worldwide operations for the Drug Enforcement Company, instructed the AP that the arrests are necessary however unlikely going to have an effect on medicine coming to the U.S. as a result of Guzmán López was the least influential of the “Chapitos.”

“It is a nice blow for the rule of legislation, however is it going to have an effect on the cartel? I don’t assume so,” he instructed the information outlet. “It’s not going to have a dent on the drug commerce as a result of any person from inside the cartel goes to interchange him.”

El Chapo was sentenced to life in U.S. jail in 2019. Final December, a court rejected his sentence enchantment.

The Related Press contributed.