Following the surprise arrest in Texas of two alleged Sinaloa Cartel drug lords, three law enforcement officials said investigators believe one of the men may have tricked the other into boarding a flight to the United States.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel boss known as “El Chapo,” and the cartel’s co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia were arrested Thursday in El Paso, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced.
Garland said in a statement that both men have previously been indicted and face “multiple charges, including operating a deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking network” with ties to a Mexico-based criminal organization.
Three law enforcement sources said authorities were investigating whether Guzman tricked “El Mayo” Zambada into boarding a flight to the U.S. The flight first went to New Mexico and then to El Paso, where the two were arrested and taken into custody.
Guzman was flown by authorities to Chicago, while Zambada remained in El Paso and is scheduled to appear in federal court on Friday.
The sources said one theory was that Guzman decided to turn himself in and thought he might get more favorable treatment if he brought along another key figure from a drug cartel.
Homeland Security Investigations said the arrests were the result of a joint HSI-FBI operation targeting the cartels.
Guzmán’s father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, was arrested in Mexico in 2017 and extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to life plus 30 years in New York in 2019 and is currently serving his sentence.
“The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are at the center” of the U.S. synthetic drug crisis, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, the DEA said in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our nation has ever faced, and the Department of Justice will not rest until all drug cartel leaders, members and associates who poison our communities are held accountable,” Garland said in a statement.
Another of “El Chapo’s” sons, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, an alleged drug cartel leader, was arrested in Mexico in January 2023 and extradited to the United States on drug and money laundering charges. He pleaded not guilty in September.
A federal grand jury indicted Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ovidio Guzman Lopez in 2018 on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States.
A federal grand jury last year also indicted “El Chapo” Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, as well as two of his sons, the Justice Department announced at the time.
The remaining two sons, Ivan Guzman Salazar and Alfredo Guzman Salazar, have not been arrested. Federal officials say the four sons, known as the “Chapitos,” took over their father’s drug trafficking network and faction of the cartel.
According to the DEA, the Sinaloa Cartel is made up of four criminal organizations, including Los Chapitos, which was run by four of his sons.
The DEA said in a 2024 report that the brothers pushed fentanyl to become a bigger part of the cartel’s operations.
“While the Sinaloa Cartel has been producing fentanyl in large quantities since at least 2012, the Chapitos faction is responsible for elevating fentanyl’s importance to the cartel’s ‘bottom line,'” the report said.
According to the DEA, Zambada Garcia, known as “El Mayo,” is the cartel’s co-founder and co-leader of the crime organization for 30 years. He controls one of the four factions. Form a cartel.
Zambada Garcia was an associate of “El Chapo” but had recently been involved in an internal conflict with the “Chapitos,” the agency said.
Zambada Garcia also faces charges in the United States. He was indicted in February on one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, the Department of Justice said at the time.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said Zambada-Garcia’s arrest “striks to the heart of the drug cartels that are killing Americans across the country with fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs.”
“El Mayo is one of the DEA’s most wanted criminals, he is being taken into custody tonight and will soon be tried in a United States court,” Milgram said in a statement.
Last year, an estimated 107,543 people died from drug overdoses in the United States, with the majority of those (an estimated 74,702) being caused by synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The second most common cause was psychostimulants such as methamphetamine, which caused an estimated 36,251 deaths.
The DEA said in a report this year that the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are producing fentanyl in labs in Mexico and shipping it to the United States.
Both cartels reportedly ordered their subordinates to stop trafficking fentanyl last year, and the Chapitos publicly promoted it, but the DEA concluded that “the ban was likely a public relations stunt.”
“Throughout 2023, fentanyl was seized at the border in similar or higher quantities than in the previous year, but DEA field offices did not report any increased availability or price of fentanyl, both of which would indicate a decrease in supply,” the report said.
