The United States has successfully arrested Mexico’s most wanted drug lord, but Mexican prosecutors – and the president – now say they are considering bringing treason charges against those who turned him in.
It’s part of the long and strange saga of the leader of the Sinaloa cartel Ismael “El Mayo” Zambadawho unexpectedly appeared on a flight that landed near El Paso, Texas, in July. The private plane flight was organized by another drug trafficker who decided to turn himself in.
U.S. officials say Joaquín Guzmán López, son of imprisoned cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, traveled to the United States to surrender but kidnapped Zambada before leaving Mexico and forced him onto the plane.
But rather than thank the United States for stopping Zambada — whose cartel has spread violence and terror across Mexico for decades — Mexican prosecutors are considering bringing treason charges against Guzmán or anyone else involved in the plot.
US State Department via AP
Mexico’s attorney general’s office announced Sunday night that it had opened a criminal investigation “for possible crimes of illegal flight, illicit use of airports, violations of immigration and customs laws, kidnapping, treason and any other crimes that may apply.”
The strange reaction to the capture of a drug trafficker whose head had a reward of 15 million US dollars is based on an article of the Mexican penal code that provides for prison sentences of up to 40 years for treason.
The article takes traditional definitions of treason — attacking Mexico on behalf of a foreign power or serving a foreign army — but also specifies that treason is committed “by those who illegally kidnap a person in Mexico in order to deliver him or her to the authorities of another country.”
The clause was apparently motivated by the kidnapping of a Mexican doctor wanted for allegedly participating in the torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Kiki Camarena in 1985.
Doctor Humberto Machaín was kidnapped in Mexico in 1990 and handed over to U.S. authorities, sparking anger in Mexico.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has long viewed any U.S. intervention as an affront and has refused to take on Mexico’s drug cartels. In fact, he said Monday that he questions the U.S. policy of detaining drug cartel leaders, asking “why don’t they change that policy?”
Asked about the Zambada case — and the possible involvement of a senior politician from López Obrador’s Morena party in negotiations with drug lords — the president described the whole affair as a possible U.S. plot to smear him by linking his party to drug lords.
“In the United States there are groups that do not want to understand that things have changed and want to continue intervening, undermining, trying to dominate,” Lopez Obrador said.
“Abducted and forcibly brought to the United States”
Over the weekend, Zambada’s lawyer released a letter from his client saying he was ambushed and kidnapped While he thought he was going to meet the governor of the state of Sinaloa, in the north of the country, he was taken against his will to the United States.
In the letter obtained by CBS News, Zambada wrote that there were “many inaccurate reports” and that he would provide the “true facts” of that day. He added that he wanted everyone to know up front that he did not turn himself in, that he did not make a deal and that he did not come voluntarily.
“On the contrary, I was kidnapped and brought to the United States by force and against my will,” he wrote.
In the two-page letter, Zambada said Guzmán López asked him to attend a July 25 meeting with local politicians, including Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya of the ruling Morena party.
But the letter said he was taken to a room where he was knocked down, a hood was placed over his head, he was handcuffed, then taken in a van to an airstrip where he was forced onto a private plane that eventually took him and Guzmán López to U.S. soil.
The letter raised questions about links between drug traffickers and some politicians in Sinaloa, the Pacific coast state where the Sinaloa cartel is headquartered, but Governor Richa Moya has denied any links to the criminals and said he was not in Sinaloa that day. After the arrests, he said he was in Los Angeles.
Zambada ends his letter by calling on the governments of the United States and Mexico to be “transparent” about his kidnapping, subsequent disappearances and death.
“I also call on the people of Sinaloa to exercise restraint and maintain peace in our state,” Zambada wrote. “Nothing can be solved through violence. We have been down this path before and everyone loses.”
The attorney general’s office said it had taken over the case from Sinaloa state prosecutors. Regarding the governor’s possible involvement, the office said it had “contacted him to obtain all necessary information,” but apparently did not call him to testify.
In early August, Zambada, 76, made his second appearance in a U.S. federal court in Texas after being taken into U.S. custody the previous week.
Guzman Lopez had apparently been in long-term negotiations with U.S. authorities over a possible surrender. Guzman Lopez, 38, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in federal court in Chicago.
Provided to CBS
U.S. authorities said they had little warning when Guzmán López’s plane landed at an airport near El Paso and did not expect Zambada to be on board. Both men were arrested and remain in jail. They face charges in the United States for various drug-related offenses.
Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said the plane took off from Sinaloa without filing a flight plan. He stressed that the pilot was not American, nor was the plane.
It appears that Guzmán López intended to surrender and brought Zambada with him to obtain more favorable treatment, but his motives remain unclear.
Zambada was considered the Sinaloa Cartel’s strategist and was believed to be more involved in its day-to-day operations than his more well-known and visible boss, “The Chapo”, who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019.
The Zambada faction of the Sinaloa Cartel is engaged in heavy fighting with another faction led by Guzmán’s sons.
