As a propeller plane on Thursday whirred towards the U.S.-Mexico border to cross illegally, U.S. agents raced to meet it at a small municipal airport near El Paso, Texas, and arrest two men who were part of Mexican drug trafficking royalty.
The son of jailed former Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman planned to give himself up upon landing. The other passenger - legendary septuagenarian trafficker Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada – did not and was duped into getting on the plane by the younger man, according to two current and two former U.S. officials familiar with the situation.
Zambada's arrest followed lengthy surrender talks between U.S. authorities and El Chapo's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the sources said. But many American officials had given up hope on Joaquin turning himself in, and were caught unaware when he sent a last-minute message that he would arrive with a kingpin U.S. authorities had been chasing for four decades.
"El Mayo was the cherry on top," said one U.S. official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrests. "It wasn't expected at all."
Guzman Lopez had convinced Zambada to board the plane by telling him that they were flying to see real estate in northern Mexico, according to the two current and one former U.S. officials.
Reuters was the first news organization to report the arrests, ahead of a Department of Justice statement on Thursday evening that confirmed the two men had been detained in El Paso. The news agency spoke to current and former officials to piece together a detailed account of the operation.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the two agencies who carried out the operation, scrambled agents from their local El Paso offices and barely reached the airport by the time the private plane was landing, according to a fifth source, a U.S. official who declined to give further details on the arrests.
One worker at the Dona Ana County International Jetport, near El Paso, told Reuters he saw a Beechcraft King Air plane land on Thursday afternoon on the runway, where federal agents were already waiting.
"Two individuals got off the plane ... and were calmly taken into custody," said the man, who declined to share his name out of concern for his safety.
Zambada is accused of being one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico's history, having co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with "El Chapo" Guzman, who was extradited to the U.S. in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
Reuters could not determine why Guzman Lopez betrayed his father's long-time partner, though the four current and former sources said it was likely due to his desire to obtain a more favorable plea bargain deal from U.S. authorities and help his brother, Ovidio, who was arrested and extradited to the United States in 2023.
U.S. authorities have made drug bosses key targets, frequently striking plea bargain deals with them in exchange for information that leads to the capture of other high-ranking cartel figures.
The back-channel communication between American officials and Guzman Lopez was carried out through lawyers, the first official said. Jeffrey Lichtman, who represents both Guzman brothers, declined to comment.
Zambada, who was in a wheelchair, pleaded not guilty on Friday in a Texas courtroom to drug charges, including continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics importation conspiracy, and money laundering.
His lawyer, Frank Perez, said on Friday that Zambada did not come to the U.S. voluntarily. On Saturday night, Perez said Guzman Lopez had "forcibly kidnapped" in Mexico and brought him to the United States against his will.
Guzman Lopez is due to appear in court next week in Chicago, where he was first indicted on drug charges around 6 years ago.
Guzman Lopez is one of four sons of El Chapo - known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos - who inherited their father's faction of the cartel. Joaquin and Ovidio have the same mother, while the other two siblings – Ivan and Jesus Alfredo – hail from El Chapo's first marriage.
The brothers have in recent years come under ferocious pressure from U.S. authorities, who have made them their main anti-narcotics targets, portraying them and the Sinaloa Cartel as the biggest traffickers of fentanyl into the United States. Fentanyl overdoses have surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
Ray Donovan, a former high-ranking U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official, said the defeats suffered by key Sinaloa Cartel bosses in recent past are mainly down to their embrace of fentanyl, which has risen up the political agenda in Washington as the death told has mounted on U.S. streets.
"The number of Americans dying has put a lot more pressure," Donovan said. "Fentanyl brought them down."
On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden heralded the arrests and vowed to continue combating "the scourge of fentanyl".
THE NEW GENERATION OF NARCOS
El Chapo's sons are known to be more violent and hot-headed than Zambada, who had a reputation as a shrewd operator who liked to stay in the shadows. Guzman Lopez was also seen as less important than his other three brothers.
The U.S. authorities had a $15 million reward for the capture of Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel in the late 1980s with El Chapo. Guzman Lopez had a $5 million bounty on his head. Both men face multiple indictments in the United States.
The first U.S. official cautioned that there are still many questions unanswered about how or why Zambada, an ultra-cautious and experienced cartel chieftain, found himself on that plane.
Mexican Security Minister Rosa Rodriguez said that Mexico was informed of the detentions by the U.S. government, but that Mexican authorities did not participate in the operation.
Outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has taken a cautious approach to tackling the powerful cartels, curbing security cooperation with U.S. authorities on fears that the previous U.S.-Mexico strategy of targeting powerful kingpins was triggering more nationwide violence.
In Oct. 2019, Mexico's military arrested Ovidio but was forced to release him after hundreds of Sinaloa Cartel foot soldiers blocked roads and fought running gun battles with soldiers as they lay siege to the city of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa. The military arrested Ovidio again in Jan. 2023 and he was extradited in September last year.
Matthew Allen, a former Special Agent in Charge of HSI's Arizona division that built indictments against Guzman Lopez and other Sinaloa Cartel figures, said both Zambada and Guzman Lopez had had periodic conversations with U.S. officials about surrendering over the years.
Allen, who maintains regular contact with former colleagues at HSI, said many traffickers, especially those from the younger generation, realize that giving themselves up, serving some time in jail, and then spending their wealth is a better option than risking death from rivals in Mexico or capture by authorities that can lead to lifelong prison terms. Some informants are allowed to enter witness protection programs.
"They're seeing that this way you can do your time and do not have to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life," he said.
Notorious Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada was "forcibly kidnapped" by a son of his former partner Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who brought him to the United States where both men are detained, Zambada's defense lawyer said on Saturday.
Frank Perez, Zambada's lawyer, said El Chapo's son Joaquin Guzman Lopez and six men in military uniforms ambushed Zambada near Culiacan in Mexico's Sinaloa state, forced him onto a plane and brought him to the United States against his will. Zambada pleaded not guilty to drug charges on Friday in El Paso, Texas, federal court.
"Joaquin Guzman Lopez forcibly kidnapped my client," Perez said in a statement. Perez said the incident caused some back and leg issues for Zambada, who was in a wheelchair during his initial court appearance in El Paso on Friday.
Asked about Perez's assertion, Guzman Lopez's defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said, "I've got no comment other than to note that Mr. Zambada is free to employ any defense he'd like against the charges he faces."
Perez had said on Friday that Zambada did not come to the United States voluntarily but did not use the word "kidnapped."
In conversations over two days, multiple U.S. officials briefed on the operation made no mention of any alleged use of force by Guzman Lopez.
Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice and Mexico's presidency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier on Saturday, Reuters reported that Guzman Lopez - who planned to give himself up to authorities - duped Zambada into boarding a propeller plane by telling him they were flying to see real estate in northern Mexico, according to two current and one former U.S. officials.
Instead, the plane landed at a small municipal airport near El Paso, where federal agents took Zambada, who is in his late 70s, and Guzman Lopez, who is about 38 years old, into custody.
The operation was a coup for U.S. authorities that may reshape the Mexican criminal landscape. Zambada is one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexican history, but he and El Chapo's sons have had a fractious relationship since their father was extradited to the United States in 2017.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
Guzman Lopez is expected to make an initial court appearance in federal court in Chicago next week, where he faces drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
Zambada is due back in court on Thursday.
- Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the notorious alleged co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded not guilty to U.S. drug charges on Friday after he and a son of a Mexican drug lord were arrested in Texas in a dramatic achievement for U.S. law enforcement that could usher in a seismic shift to Mexico's criminal landscape.
Court records showed that Zambada directed that a not-guilty plea be entered on his behalf, which was accepted by U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Berton.
At an initial court appearance in a Texas courtroom on Friday, Zambada, who is believed to be in his 70s and was in a wheelchair, was read his rights and charges, according to a transcript.
He waived his right to be present at an arraignment next Wednesday. He will be required to appear in person at a status conference on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone, who will oversee the rest of the case, the records show.
Zambada is accused of being one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico's history, having co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. El Chapo was extradited to the U.S. in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.
Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo, face multiple charges in the United States for allegedly funneling huge quantities of fentanyl and other drugs to U.S. streets. Fentanyl overdoses have surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
Guzman Lopez, who is in his 30s, is due to appear in court in Chicago next week, according to a U.S. official.
The two were detained after landing in a private plane in the El Paso area on Thursday.
Reuters was the first news organization to report the story, ahead of a Department of Justice statement on Thursday evening which confirmed the two men had been detained in El Paso.
On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden heralded the arrests and vowed to continue combating drug trafficking.
"Too many of our citizens have lost their lives to the scourge of fentanyl. Too many families have been broken and are suffering because of this destructive drug," he said in a statement.
A TRAP
Guzman Lopez lured Zambada to the U.S., according to three current and former U.S. officials familiar with the operation, who sought anonymity to speak candidly about the events.
"My client did not come to the U.S. voluntarily," said Zambada's lawyer, Frank Perez.
U.S. authorities have made drug bosses key targets, frequently striking plea bargain deals with them in exchange for information that leads to the capture of other high-ranking cartel figures.
Reuters could not immediately determine whether a plea bargain deal had been struck.
[1/3]A newspaper seller arranges newspapers reporting the El Paso, Texas, U.S., arrest of Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, "El Chapo" Guzman's son, in Mexico City, Mexico July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Gustavo Graf Purchase Licensing Rights
Zambada and El Chapo's sons have had a fractious relationship since their father was extradited in 2017, and the arrests of Zambada and Guzman Lopez may trigger instability or even violence in their heartlands in the northern state of Sinaloa.
Mexico's defense ministry on Friday said it had sent 200 special forces soldiers to Sinaloa to enhance security.
A bloody inter-cartel war erupted in 2008 when another senior Sinaloa leader was detained. His family members accused El Chapo of orchestrating the arrest with Mexican authorities, triggering a violent fissure between two powerful factions of the crime group.
Guzman Lopez is one of four sons of El Chapo - known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos - who inherited their father's faction of the cartel. His brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, was arrested last year and extradited to the U.S.
Rumors on social media had circulated that Ovidio Guzman had been released, but the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, said in a statement that he "remains in custody in the United States."
In recent years, the cartel has become the biggest target for U.S. authorities, who have accused the crime syndicate of being the biggest supplier of fentanyl to the U.S.
The Sinaloa cartel traffics drugs to more than 50 countries around the globe and is one of the two most powerful organized crime groups in Mexico, according to U.S. authorities.
Zambada and El Chapo's sons belong to two different generations of traffickers, with differing styles.
Zambada is known for being an "old-school," avoiding the limelight and operating in the shadows. El Chapo's sons, by contrast, have a reputation for being flashy narcos who courted attention as they ascended the ranks of the cartel.
El Chapo's sons are also known to be more violent and hot-headed than Zambada, who had a reputation as a shrewd operator.
'CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE'
The Texas charges to which Zambada pleaded not guilty included continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics importation conspiracy, and money laundering.
The indictment, filed in April 2012, alleges that cartel members under the leadership of Zambada and El Chapo kidnapped a Texas resident in 2009 to answer for the loss of a seized marijuana shipment, and kidnapped a U.S. citizen and two members of his family in 2010.
Both victims were murdered, and their bodies were discovered in Juarez, Mexico, prosecutors said.
Mexican Security Minister Rosa Rodriguez said Mexico was informed of the detentions by the U.S. government but that Mexican authorities did not participate in the operation.
She said that it was unclear whether the two men were captured or surrendered themselves to U.S. authorities.
"The Mexican government did not participate in this detention or surrender," Rodriguez said at a press conference.