Mexican drug lord Ismael Zambada Garcia, also known as “El Mayo,” co-founder of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, was taken into custody Thursday in El Paso, Texas, according to the Justice Department.
Juaquin Guzman Lopez, son of the cartel’s other co-founder, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was also arrested.
“The Department of Justice has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world,” said U.S. Attorney General Merick B. Garland. “Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as “El Mayo,” a co-founder of the cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of its other co-founder, were arrested today in El Paso, Texas.”
Zambada Garcia and now-imprisoned drug lord “El Chapo” founded the Sinaloa Cartel.
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An undated police handout photo shows Ismael Zambada. (Courtesy of the Procuraduría General de la Republica/Document distributed via REUTERS/File photo)
“El Mayo,” who had been offered a $15 million reward by the Justice Department for information leading to his arrest and conviction, now faces a litany of charges related to drug trafficking and organized crime in the United States.
In February, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Zambada Garcia with conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, which U.S. authorities say is the leading cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 45.
The superseding indictment extended the dates of the previous indictments from May 2014 to January 2024, and at the time of its filing, Zambada Garcia was a fugitive.
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Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, is escorted to a helicopter in Mexico City after his capture in the resort town of Mazatlan. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, file)
Guzman was convicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn in February 2019 and sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years.
Zambada Garcia continued to elude capture and allegedly continued to lead the Sinaloa Cartel from Mexico, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in February.
According to the superseding indictment, Zambada Garcia operated, from 1999 to 2024, a continuing enterprise responsible for the importation and distribution of massive quantities of narcotics, which generated billions of dollars in profits.
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Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted by soldiers during a presentation in Mexico City, January 8, 2016. (REUTERS/Tomas Bravo/File photo)
In his efforts to ensure the success of the cartel, Zambada Garcia allegedly employed individuals to obtain transportation routes and warehouses to import and store narcotics and “sicarios,” or hit men, to commit kidnappings and murders in Mexico to exact revenge on rivals who threatened the Sinaloa Cartel.
The millions of dollars generated by the operation were then repatriated to Mexico.
“El Mayo and Guzman Lopez join a growing list of Sinaloa Cartel leaders and associates that the Justice Department holds accountable in the United States. This includes the cartel’s other co-founder, Joaquin Guzman Loera, or “El Chapo,” another of El Chapo’s sons and an alleged cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, and the alleged cartel leader, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, or “El Nini,” Garland said. “Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable.”
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In light of Guzman’s conviction at trial, his name was removed from the indictment against Zambada Garcia.
Reuters contributed to this report.
