Within the wake of the shock arrests of two alleged Sinaloa Cartel drug lords in Texas, three legislation enforcement officers say that investigators imagine one of many males might have fooled the opposite into getting on a airplane to the U.S.
Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel boss referred to as “El Chapo,” and cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García have been arrested Thursday in El Paso, U.S. Lawyer Normal Merrick Garland stated.
Every has been beforehand been indicted, they usually face “a number of fees” in reference to the Mexico-based legal group, “together with its lethal fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” Garland stated in an announcement.
The three legislation enforcement sources say authorities are wanting into whether or not Guzmán tricked “El Mayo” Zambada into boarding the U.S.-bound airplane. The airplane went first to New Mexico after which to El Paso, the place the 2 males have been arrested and brought into custody.
Guzmán was flown by authorities to Chicago, whereas Zambada remained in El Paso, the place he’s anticipated to seem in federal court docket on Friday.
The sources stated one principle is that Guzmán had determined to give up and was below the impression he would obtain extra favorable remedy if he introduced with him one other main cartel determine.
Homeland Safety Investigations stated the arrests have been the results of a joint HSI and FBI effort concentrating on the cartel.
Guzmán’s father, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. in 2017, and is serving a sentence of life plus 30 years that was handed down in New York in 2019.
The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels “are on the coronary heart” of the artificial drug disaster within the U.S., which incorporates fentanyl and methamphetamine, the Drug Enforcement Administration stated in its 2024 Nationwide Drug Menace Evaluation.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug menace our nation has ever confronted, and the Justice Division is not going to relaxation till each single cartel chief, member, and affiliate accountable for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Garland stated within the assertion.
One other son of “El Chapo,” Ovidio Guzmán López, who was additionally alleged to be a cartel chief, was arrested in Mexico in January 2023 and has been extradited to the U.S. to face drug and cash laundering fees. He pleaded not responsible in September.
A federal grand jury indicted Joaquín Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López in 2018 on fees that alleged a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the U.S.
A federal grand jury additionally indicted Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López and two different sons of “El Chapo” final yr, the Justice Division stated on the time.
The 2 different sons, Iván Guzmán Salazar and Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, haven’t been apprehended. The 4 sons are referred to as the “Chapitos,” federal officers stated, they usually took over their father’s drug trafficking networks and his faction of the cartel.
4 legal organizations make up the Sinaloa Cartel, the DEA says, together with “Los Chapitos,” which was run by the 4 sons.
The brothers promoted making fentanyl a bigger a part of the cartel’s enterprise, the DEA stated within the 2024 report.
“The Sinaloa Cartel has been producing bulk portions of fentanyl since not less than 2012, however the Chapitos faction is accountable for pushing the significance of fentanyl to the cartel’s ‘backside line,'” the report says.
Zambada García, referred to as “El Mayo,” co-founded the cartel and was a co-head of the legal group for 3 a long time, in accordance with the DEA. He controls one of many 4 factions making up the cartel.
Zambada García was a associate of “El Chapo,” however extra not too long ago he has been concerned in an inside battle with the “Chapitos,” the company stated.
Zambada García has additionally been charged within the U.S. He was most not too long ago charged in a superseding indictment in February that accuses him of a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, the Justice Division introduced on the time.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram stated Zambada García’s arrest “strikes on the coronary heart of the cartel that’s accountable for almost all of medicine, together with fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing People from coast to coast.”
“El Mayo is one in every of DEA’s most wished fugitives and he’s in custody tonight and can quickly face justice in a U.S. court docket of legislation,” Milgram stated in an announcement.
There have been an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths within the U.S. final yr, in accordance with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, most of which — an estimated 74,702 — have been from artificial opioids, which embody fentanyl. The second most have been from psychostimulants like methamphetamine, with an estimated 36,251 deaths, it stated.
The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels make fentanyl in labs in Mexico after which ship it into the U.S., the DEA stated on this yr’s report.
Each cartels are alleged to have ordered subordinates final yr to cease trafficking in fentanyl, and the “Chapitos” made a public present about it, however the DEA concluded that “the ban might be a public relations stunt.”
“All through 2023, fentanyl was seized on the border in equal or increased portions as in earlier years, and no DEA area workplace reported that fentanyl is much less accessible or dearer, both of which might level to a lower within the provide,” it stated.