Zambada García, often called El Mayo, had for many years evaded seize by each Mexican and U.S. officers, dwelling a lifetime of luxurious simplicity within the mountains of Sinaloa — regardless of the $15 million U.S. bounty on his head.
However in the long run, U.S. officers mentioned, he was betrayed by an unlikely foe: a son of his closest prison ally, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the notorious drug lord often called El Chapo, who’s now serving a life sentence in a U.S. federal jail.
El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, tricked Zambada García into boarding the aircraft, the U.S. officers mentioned, telling him they had been going to have a look at actual property in northern Mexico. The older man had no concept that he was really en path to Texas, the place he could be delivered into the fingers of U.S. brokers who had lengthy been on his tail.
The dramatic cross-border flight got here after years of quiet contact between Guzmán López and a small workforce of U.S. legislation enforcement officers within the FBI and Homeland Safety Division who had doggedly been chasing him, his three brothers and Zambada García within the wake of Guzmán Loera’s landmark conviction on drug conspiracy prices 5 years in the past. It stays unclear at this level how a lot the legislation enforcement officers formed or directed the occasions that unfolded Thursday, however they had been conscious that Zambada García was on the aircraft because it neared the U.S. border, in keeping with two folks accustomed to the matter. And in the long run, no matter what position they performed, the U.S. brokers received what they wished: They apprehended a vastly vital prison goal that had eluded seize and that that they had lengthy doubted Mexican officers may — or would — get for them.
Nearly instantly, the 2 arrests unleashed a torrent of questions in Mexico, the place the federal government mentioned that it performed no position and that it was unaware something had taken place till the U.S. Embassy referred to as with the information that Zambada García and Guzmán López had been in custody.
Grilled by reporters Friday morning, Mexico’s secretary of safety, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, mentioned the federal government didn’t know whether or not the arrest was a part of a take care of U.S. prosecutors.
“It is a part of the investigations, whether or not it was a seize or a give up,” Rodríguez mentioned. “That is a part of what the U.S. authorities must clarify.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mentioned his administration anticipated the U.S. authorities to present a “full report” on how the detentions came about — together with whether or not there was a earlier settlement with Zambada García or Guzmán López.
“There is no such thing as a mistrust,” he added. “What we’ve got all the time requested for is respect.”
There was no formal extradition request for Zambada García, who has been beneath indictment in america for greater than twenty years, with overlapping drug conspiracy prices in a number of states. And though U.S. officers have been unable to catch him inside Mexico, even with the assistance of elite troops from the Mexican navy, there have been a number of close to misses in recent times.
By duping Zambada García onto the aircraft, Guzmán López gave america the bounty it had lengthy been after. And, in doing so, he could have additionally elevated his personal possibilities of getting a good deal for himself and the brother he’s closest to, Ovidio Guzmán López, who was already in U.S. federal custody.
Zambada García waived a private look Friday at a listening to in U.S. District Court docket in El Paso, coming into a plea of not responsible to drug conspiracy prices via a lawyer. He was held in custody pending a detention listening to scheduled for Wednesday.
Guzmán López is predicted to seem Tuesday for his personal preliminary listening to in U.S. District Court docket in Chicago.
U.S. legislation enforcement brokers have maintained a quiet again channel with Guzmán López for a while, one which elevated considerably in frequency after Ovidio was extradited to face trial in Chicago final September, in keeping with three folks accustomed to his state of affairs.
Though it stays unclear how a lot impact that outreach had on his determination to trick Zambada García, delivering a prize comparable to El Mayo to U.S. prosecutors may solely assist his possibilities of getting pleasant phrases in any future plea deal.
U.S. officers had additionally been quietly negotiating on and off for at the very least three years with Zambada García about his personal potential give up, though these talks finally went nowhere.
On Friday, Rodríguez prompt that authorities believed a non-public Cessna aircraft carried the 2 crime bosses in a foreign country, publicly figuring out the pilot as an American citizen named Larry Curtis Parker.
She mentioned the aircraft took off about 8 a.m. on Thursday. However a U.S. official accustomed to the info of the case mentioned the aircraft that flew the 2 males out of Hermosillo was a Beechcraft that had left the airport at about 2 p.m.
Reached by cellphone Friday afternoon, a person who recognized himself as Parker mentioned Mexican officers had been mistaken in naming him because the pilot who had flown the 2 males over the border. Parker acknowledged that he flew a small Cessna and mentioned he noticed a Beechcraft parked close to his personal aircraft on the Hermosillo airport Thursday.
He mentioned he had nothing to do with cartel figures. “I am only a clean-cut, hardworking American,” Parker mentioned.
An official with Mexico’s safety ministry who was not approved to talk publicly mentioned an investigation would decide whether or not there was any mistake in figuring out the pilot.
The arrest of Zambada García — lengthy thought-about a godfather in his nation’s underworld and considered one of its shrewdest remaining capos — resounded throughout Mexico as one of many largest blows to organized crime in recent times.
“That is the one arrest that may actually shake up the Mexican market,” mentioned Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment and an knowledgeable on world drug coverage, saying it may provoke “an amazing quantity of violence and instability throughout the Americas.”
If Zambada García was certainly betrayed, “there’s going to be struggle inside Sinaloa,” mentioned Eduardo Guerrero, a safety analyst based mostly in Mexico Metropolis, producing brutal waves of violence within the coming weeks. A weakened Sinaloa cartel, he mentioned, may additionally immediate the rival Jalisco New Technology cartel to push into new territory.
On Friday, at the very least 200 members of the Mexican Particular Forces had been deployed to Culiacán, the cartel’s stronghold in Sinaloa, to beef up safety, the Mexican army mentioned in an announcement.
The arrest may even have political implications, some U.S. officers mentioned, notably if Zambada García decides to cooperate with U.S. authorities and disclose what he is aware of about corruption in his nation.
The Sinaloa cartel has been battered over the previous a number of months by a wave of arrests focusing on the higher echelon of the group.
In Could, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, who authorities consider is a high murderer for the 4 Guzmán brothers, was extradited to New York on drug conspiracy prices, a part of a sprawling indictment that accuses El Chapo’s sons of being among the many world’s most prolific smugglers of fentanyl. One other suspected Sinaloa murderer, Jorge Iván Gastélum Ávila, was extradited final yr to face trial in Washington.
However specialists mentioned the arrests had been unlikely to make a dent within the flows of fentanyl and different drugs throughout the border.
“It isn’t a deadly blow,” mentioned Valentin Pereda, a professor of criminology on the College of Montreal. “All people in Sinaloa mourned the arrest of El Chapo. However on the identical time, the group survived and continued rising.”
“It will take months of actually intensive warfare” inside the cartel for the world to detect a change in fentanyl trafficking dynamics, Felbab-Brown added. “We’re distant from that second.”
This text initially appeared in The New York Instances.