WASHINGTON (AFP) – United States (US) agents arrested two top leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel in Texas on Thursday, the justice department said, striking a major blow to one of the most powerful and violent criminal organisations in the world.
Ismael Zambada Garcia, also known as ‘El Mayo,’ cofounder of the Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of its other co-founder, were arrested in El Paso, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Garland described the Sinaloa cartel as “one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organisations in the world”.
The pair face “multiple charges in the US for leading the Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks”, he said.
The arrests are another major blow to the Sinaloa cartel, whose co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in the US. El Chapo was convicted in 2019 of running what was believed to be the world’s biggest narcotics syndicate.
The cartel, which was born in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, is one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal groups. After El Chapo’s capture, several of his sons, collectively known as the “Chapitos” or “The Little Chapos”, inherited control of the organisation, according to US authorities.
One son, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, was extradited to the US last year to face narcotics charges.
Zambada, who co-founded the cartel, is described by the InSight Crime think tank as “one of the most storied drug traffickers in Mexican history.”
It said the cartel “has forged connections at the highest levels of Mexico’s federal police and military, and has bribed members of both institutions to maintain an advantage over rival organisations.”
Details about the arrests have not been officially released, but US media said law enforcement sources described a dramatic sting operation in which El Mayo was unwittingly lured across the border.
Fox News reported Guzman Lopez had convinced Zambada to board a private plane for a flight south in Mexico, but instead it flew north and landed in El Paso, Texas. When the aircraft touched down, Guzman surrendered and El Mayo was captured, a Fox News reporter posted on social media platform X.
The New York Times quoted US officials saying the son of El Chapo Guzman lured Zambada onto a private plane to El Paso “under false pretenses”.
