Top Sinaloa cartel leaders, including son of El Chapo, taken into US custody: DOJ

Two prime leaders of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel have been taken into custody by United States authorities to face expenses for his or her position in main the group’s huge drug trafficking enterprise, the Division of Justice introduced Thursday.

Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of “El Chapo” Guzman, have been positioned below arrest in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, in keeping with Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland.

“Each males are dealing with a number of expenses in the USA for main the Cartel’s legal operations, together with its lethal fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” Garland mentioned in an announcement. “El Mayo and Guzman Lopez be a part of a rising record of Sinaloa Cartel leaders and associates who the Justice Division is holding accountable in the USA.”

Zambada made his preliminary look Friday morning in El Paso federal courtroom earlier than Choose Anne Berton, in keeping with courtroom data. He pleaded not responsible to the 12 expenses in his 2012 indictment within the Western District of Texas and was ordered detained pending his subsequent listening to, scheduled for July 31, in keeping with courtroom data.

Zambada, 76, required using a wheelchair and made no different statements aside from responding to Berton with “Sure,” “No,” or “Sure, I perceive,” as she questioned him, in keeping with a transcript of the proceedings obtained by ABC Information.

Throughout the proceedings, Berton mentioned that Ray Velarde, an legal professional who plans to hitch the case, has an impressive battle in representing Zambada which the defendant could be permitted to waive if he chooses. The choose didn’t tackle the character of the battle.

Zambada faces a number of federal indictments in jurisdictions throughout the U.S. for his alleged position within the cartel and has been on the run from U.S. and Mexican regulation enforcement for years. His fellow co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, was extradited to the U.S. in 2017, convicted in 2019 and sentenced to life in jail.

“At present, the FBI and DEA arrested two alleged cartel leaders who’ve eluded regulation enforcement for many years. Ismael Mario ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of El Chapo, will now face justice in the USA,” FBI Director Christopher Wray mentioned in an announcement.

“Garcia and Guzman have allegedly overseen the trafficking of tens of hundreds of kilos of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the U.S. together with associated violence. These arrests are an instance of the FBI’s and our companions dedication to dismantling violent transnational legal organizations just like the Sinaloa Cartel,” Wray mentioned.

The lads have been arrested in an operation that ended on U.S. soil.

“El Mayo” thought he was headed to examine a clandestine Mexican airfield, of which the Sinaloa cartel has many within the nation. As an alternative, in keeping with a Homeland Safety Investigations official, a senior rating member of the cartel tricked him and flew him to El Paso as an alternative.

Upon touchdown on the tarmac, brokers from HSI, together with the FBI arrested “El Mayo” and Guzman.

The HSI official tells ABC Information the operation had been deliberate “for months.”

They have been positioned in handcuffs by FBI brokers throughout an operation culminating at an airstrip not removed from El Paso.

“The arrest of Ismael Zambada García, higher referred to as ‘El Mayo,’ one of many alleged founders and leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, strikes on the coronary heart of the cartel that’s accountable for almost all of medication, together with fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing People from coast to coast. El Mayo is considered one of DEA’s most needed fugitives and he’s in custody tonight and can quickly face justice in a U.S. courtroom of regulation,” mentioned Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram.

“Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one other alleged chief of the Sinaloa Cartel, and the son of ‘El Chapo,’ was additionally arrested at the moment — his arrest is one other monumental blow to the Sinaloa Cartel. In 2017, he and his brothers, the Chapitos, allegedly took management of the Sinaloa Cartel after El Chapo was extradited to the USA. DEA will proceed to hunt justice for any American life that’s misplaced and can work tirelessly to stop extra pointless deaths and pursue these which can be accountable,” Milgram mentioned.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador referred to as the arrests a “breakthrough” within the combat in opposition to the drug disaster impacting the U.S. in feedback on Friday.

The Mexican authorities mentioned was not conscious that the 2 have been going to be extradited to the U.S. to be arrested, Mexican authorities mentioned throughout a press briefing on Friday.

The Mexican authorities acquired a cellphone name from the U.S. Embassy Thursday afternoon informing them the 2 have been in custody in El Paso, the authorities mentioned. The Mexican authorities has requested U.S. officers for photos of the 2 males to substantiate the data.

In response to the flight plan, the non-public airplane that was used to move the 2 males traveled from Hermosillo, Sonora, to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, Mexican authorities mentioned.

The U.S. authorities had supplied a $15 million reward for info resulting in the arrest and/or conviction of Zambada.

“Too a lot of our residents have misplaced their lives to the scourge of fentanyl,” President Joe Biden mentioned in an announcement Friday morning. “Too many households have been damaged and are struggling due to this harmful drug. My Administration will proceed doing every little thing we will to carry lethal drug traffickers to account and to save lots of American lives.”

Guzman Lopez’s brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, was charged final yr with two dozen others as a part of a crackdown concentrating on a worldwide drug trafficking community run via Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. In response to the costs, the cartel used precursor chemical compounds shipped from China to gas the fentanyl disaster plaguing the U.S.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez had been needed by U.S. authorities since 2019 and was captured by Mexican armed forces in January 2023 in a small city simply outdoors the town of Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

He was captured in an in a single day raid that had been within the works for greater than six months, officers mentioned on the time. The arrest adopted an notorious incident in 2019, during which authorities briefly detained Guzman Lopez at a house in Culiacán, earlier than phrase unfold and closely armed gunmen flooded the town. Huge shootouts occurred between cartel members and Mexican armed forces across the metropolis. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered Guzman Lopez launched in an effort to keep away from extra bloodshed.

Their father is serving a life sentence within the U.S. after being convicted in 2019 of conducting a unbroken legal enterprise, together with large-scale narcotics violations and a homicide conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracies, illegal use of a firearm and a cash laundering conspiracy.