The co-founder of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, who had a staggering $15 million bounty on his head, has been apprehended by US forces, marking the end of an extensive manhunt.
NewsNation’s border correspondent Ali Bradley reported that Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada surrendered to FBI agents near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in the El Paso, Texas area. The specifics of the capture are yet to be revealed. He is one of the world’s most powerful drug lords and was arrested alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of another infamous cartel leader
According to Bradley’s report, El Mayo alighted from an unmarked aircraft and willingly handed himself over to US law enforcement. The US government had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Zambada’s capture. The Justice Department said the men were arrested in El Paso but didn’t immediately provide details about how they were taken into custody.
It is speculated that he continued to oversee the operations of the Sinaloa Cartel while avoiding arrest, working alongside the notorious cartel boss Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, better known as ‘El Chapo’.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had previously cautioned on its “fugitives” page for El Mayo: “Fugitive may be armed and dangerous. Do not attempt to apprehend this individual,” along with the substantial reward offer for information leading to his arrest.
This hefty reward was proposed by the DEA but financed by the State Department, which was keen to see the drug lord incarcerated due to pressure from various government bodies, reports the Mirror.
El Mayo was one of the world’s biggest drug lords (Image: n/a)
Ismael Zambada ‘El Mayo’ worked his way up from enforcer (Image: n/a)
Zambada and Guzman Lopez are facing multiple charges “for leading the cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Zambada’s detention follows some important arrests of other Sinaloa cartel figures, including one of his sons and another son of “El Chapo” Guzman, Ovidio Guzman Lopez. Zambada’s son pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in San Diego in 2021 to being a leader in the Sinaloa cartel.
In recent years, Guzman’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the little Chapos, or “Chapitos” that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. market. They were seen as more violent and flamboyant than Zambada. Their security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested and extradited to the U.S. last year. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago in September.
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, said Zambada’s arrest is important but unlikely to have much impact on the flow of drugs to the U.S. Joaquin Guzman Lopez was the least influential of the four sons who made up the Chapitos, Vigil said.
“This is a great blow for the rule of law, but is it going to have an impact on the cartel? I don’t think so,” Vigil said. “It’s not going to have a dent on the drug trade because somebody from within the cartel is going to replace him,” Vigil said.
The State Department provided comprehensive background information on El Mayo on its website, stating: “Ismael Mario Zambada Garcia is the long-time leader of the Zambada Garcia faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Zambada Garcia is unique in that he has spent his entire adult life as a major international drug trafficker, yet he has never spent a day in jail.”
Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“With the arrest, extradition, conviction, and sentencing of fellow Sinaloa Cartel faction leader Joaquin Guzman-Loera, a/k/a Chapo Guzman, Zambada Garcia is the unquestioned senior leader of the Sinaloa Cartel,” the report continues.
The document details a series of allegations against El Mayo over the years. It first cites an indictment from the District of Columbia in late January 2003, followed by another from the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Chicago, in late August 2009.
By mid-April 2012, El Mayo faced another indictment from the Western District of Texas. Over the next four years, two more indictments were filed – one at the end of July 2014 from the Southern District of California, and another from the Eastern District of New York in mid-May 2016.
Drug trafficker Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican security forces at Mexico’s International Airport in Mexico city, Mexico, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Mexico’s apprehension of the world’s most-wanted drug boss struck a blow to a cartel that local and U.S. authorities say swelled into a multinational empire, fuelling killings around the world. (Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“All of the indictments involve a major violation of U.S. narcotics laws,” states the US Department’s release. However, the charge from Chicago appears to be the most severe or at least the most likely to result in El Mayo’s conviction, due to his own son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, testifying against him.
Zambada Niebla was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2009 and later extradited to Chicago for trial. After some time, he pled guilty as reported in the release, agreeing to cooperate further.
He had given evidence against his father during El Chapo’s trial in Brooklyn, which took place in January 2019. According to the release, he was sentenced to a 15-year prison term in May 2019.
The startling revelation was that Zambada Garcia’s 2019 testimony also implicated his father, as he “recounted the shipment of tons of drugs by his father.”
Vicente Zambada Niebla testified against the cartels (Image: DEA/Wikipedia)
The release further stated: “He also testified that his father’s bribery budget was often as much as $1 million per month, with bribes going to many high-level Mexican public officials.”
The State Department’s release urged: “If you have information, please contact the DEA at +1-619-540-6912, which can accept messages from the social messaging applications, by email at [email protected]. If you are located outside of the United States, please contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. If in the United States, please contact the local Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations office in your city.”
The department highlighted that the $15 million reward is not only for information leading to the arrest of El Mayo but also information that leads to his conviction – meaning that it didn’t disappear when he reportedly turned himself in on Thursday.
