The arrest of two leaders of the Sinaloa cartel in the United States on Thursday, July 25th, was organized by one of the two men arrested, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of infamous cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
(CNN).- Guzman Lopez organized his arrest along with that of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 76, who co-founded the cartel with El Chapo, by luring Zambada on a flight to examine a piece of land he thought was in Mexico, an official familiar with the operation told CNN.
Instead, the plane landed in El Paso, Texas, where federal agents, including from Homeland Security Investigations, arrested the two cartel bosses.
Zambada didn’t know US investigators had exploited a rift in the cartel and Guzman Lopez was helping with Zambada’s capture, the official said. FBI agents arrested both men, in one of the biggest victories for US law enforcement against the cartels.
The cartel, one of the world’s most powerful narcotics trafficking organizations, is thought to be responsible for the trafficking of vast amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the US. DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the arrests strike “at the heart of the cartel that is responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing Americans from coast to coast.”
Experts have told CNN a power struggle between Zambada and El Chapo’s sons, also known as the Chapitos, has existed for some time in the cartel. With Zambada gone, violence inside the cartel and other criminal organizations in Mexico, is set to ramp up.
The agents from HSI, who have been working the case since earlier this year when Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against El Chapo’s three sons, were skeptical when Guzman Lopez first made the offer.
The entire operation, a source told CNN, went off surprisingly smoothly given the gravity of the arrests and the disruption it could cause to Mexican drug trafficking.
Zambada entered a not-guilty plea to all charges at his first federal court appearance Friday morning in El Paso and is being held without bond on seven federal criminal counts, including continuing criminal enterprise and money laundering.
He also agreed to waive his right to personally appear and to ask for bond at a hearing set for July 31.
Guzman Lopez, 38, was flown from El Paso via an FBI jet used for extradition operations and arrived near Chicago early Friday, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said. He is currently being held in a Chicago federal prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, and he’s scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday morning, his attorney Jeffrey Lichtman told CNN in an email Saturday. His father is serving a life sentence in a US prison after he was convicted five years ago on multiple charges.
Both Zambada and Guzman Lopez face several charges in the US for allegedly leading the cartel’s criminal operations, including its “deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement after the arrests.
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