The US Department of Justice announced on Thursday that Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, the alleged co-founder and leader of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, and the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, have been arrested by federal authorities in Texas.
“The Department of Justice has arrested two more alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world’s most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Zambada Garcia and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of cartel co-founder El Chapo, were arrested Thursday in El Paso, Texas.
Zambada Garcia and Guzman Lopez were detained after landing on a private jet, two officials told Reuters. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration had arrested two alleged drug cartel leaders who “had eluded investigation for decades.”
Mr Ray said the two alleged cartel leaders oversaw “the smuggling of tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the US and the violence that accompanied it” and “will now face justice in the US”.
The pair face multiple charges of leading the cartel’s criminal activities, including a “deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking network,” Garland said. The arrests were first reported by Reuters.
According to the Department of Justice, the arrests of Zambada and Guzman Lopez follow a series of arrests of cartel leaders and associates, including “El Chapo,” his son and alleged cartel leader Ovidio Guzman Lopez, and alleged cartel mastermind Nestor Isidro Pérez Salas, known as “El Nini.”
Arms Race in Mexico:Mexican cartels are flaunting their lethal equipment, including weapons from the United States.
Zambada, who evaded capture for years, continued to run the Sinaloa Cartel from Mexico after El Chapo was extradited to the United States in 2017 and sentenced to life in a maximum security prison. The two men were co-founders of the cartel, which over the decades expanded a global network trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana and heroin.
After El Chapo’s extradition, his four sons inherited his global drug empire, expanding its reach as one of the largest exporters of fentanyl to the U.S. According to a fifth indictment filed in February, Zambada led the cartel from 1989 to 2024, during which the crime organization imported and distributed “vast quantities” of drugs, generating billions of dollars in profits.
“The Sinaloa Cartel pioneered the production of fentanyl and has been smuggling it into the United States for years, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and devastating countless communities,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. “Today, two of the cartel’s alleged top leaders, Ismael Zambada Garcia (“El Mayo”) and Joaquín Guzmán López, are in U.S. custody and will await trial.”
“El Mayo” was indicted on charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl.
In their latest indictment in February, federal prosecutors charged Zambada with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl. Zambada had previously been charged in four other indictments with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, as well as conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit money laundering and other drug-related crimes.
The fifth indictment extends the end dates for the criminal enterprise and multiple conspiracies from May 2014 to January 2024, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
“As alleged, Zambada Garcia has been charged with numerous drug offenses, including the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, a deadly drug that was virtually unknown when he founded the Sinaloa Cartel more than three decades ago but which today causes immeasurable harm,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a February statement.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Zambada, the alleged leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, employed individuals and hit men known as “sicarios” to carry out the organization’s criminal operations, securing routes and warehouses for the import and storage of drugs, and committing murders and kidnappings across Mexico in retaliation against those who threatened the cartel.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the cartel’s operations generated millions of dollars in narcotics sales that were transported to Mexico.
Before Zambada’s arrest on Thursday, the DEA had offered a reward of up to $15 million for his arrest.
Drug cartels at the “center” of America’s drug crisis
The Sinaloa Cartel is considered “the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the Western Hemisphere,” according to the nonprofit think tank Insight Crime. The cartel is primarily involved in drug trafficking, but some factions also tax other criminal organizations, including drug dealers and human traffickers.
In its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment, the DEA noted that synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine are responsible for “nearly all fatal drug poisonings” across the country.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug addiction is the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. The CDC estimates that more than 110,000 people will die from drug overdoses in the United States in 2022, with about 70% of those deaths being due to fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.
“The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are at the heart of this crisis,” the DEA assessment said. “Their widespread control over drug crime has virtually eliminated competition in the U.S. market and allowed cartel members to establish bases in every U.S. state.”
The USA TODAY Network reports that drug cartels have widespread reach in the western U.S. region, including around Portland, Puget Sound and Alaska, where drug traffickers are targeting communities to help expand cartel networks.
Article contributed by Reuters
