A leader and co-founder of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel is in custody in the United States thanks to a stunning betrayal by one of the sons of imprisoned Mexican kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, a source told CBS News.
The arrest of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada ended more than four decades of leadership of the deadly criminal organization he founded with Guzmán Loera, who is serving a life sentence in a Colorado maximum-security prison after being convicted in 2019 charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons offences.
CBS News
One of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, 38, allegedly tricked Zambada into boarding a plane Thursday, telling him they were going to view a property in Mexico, a person familiar with the investigation confirmed to CBS News. Instead, the plane landed near El Paso, Texas, where Zambada, 76, was arrested. was arrested by U.S. law enforcement agents from the FBI and HSI.
The two men were taken into custody on the tarmac. The flight and subsequent landing went “very quickly and very quietly” without incident once the men exited the plane, a senior law enforcement official confirmed to CBS News.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, known for managing cartel finances while maintaining a low profile, struck a deal on behalf of himself and his brother Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a senior law enforcement official confirmed to CBS News. Three of Guzman Lopez’s sons, including Ovidio, were charged last year with orchestrating a transnational fentanyl trafficking operation into the United States. Ovidio was extradited to the United States in 2023months after U.S. prosecutors unsealed the numerous indictments against him and his brothers, known collectively as the “Chapitos.”
The Sinaloa Cartel runs “the largest, most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world,” according to U.S. officials.
El Chapo is said to have 12 children, but the Chapitos ran an extremely violent branch of the cartel. known for his brutal torture of his rivals. Some of their victims were “given dead or alive to the tigers.” according to to a federal indictment.
Ovidio Guzmán López, nicknamed “The Mouse,” was captured by Mexican security forces in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, in January 2023, during a violent operation that left 30 people dead.
Bureau of Prisons inmate records show that Ovidio Guzmán López was apparently removed from his detention center three days ago, but a U.S. Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that Ovidio remains in custody.
The joint DHS-FBI operation to capture Zambada had been in the works for months; he and Joaquín Guzmán López were arrested by some of the same agents working the Ovidio Guzmán López case, a senior law enforcement official confirmed to CBS News.
/ AP
A senior law enforcement official described the arrests to CBS News as a “let’s see if this works” operation that was launched in recent days, though planning had been underway for much longer.
Zambada and “The Chapo” teamed up in the late 1980s to boost their cocaine and marijuana smuggling operations. After “El Chapo” capture In 2016, Zambada became the longest-serving leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and became known for his extraordinary ability to evade capture.
—Nicole Sganga and Pat Milton contributed reporting.
