US Ambassador Confirms Mexican Drug Lord Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada Brought to US Against His Will

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Mexico confirmed Friday that drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was brought to the United States against his will when he arrived in Texas in July on a plane with fellow drug lord Joaquín Guzmán López.

Zambada’s lawyer had previously claimed that the longtime Sinaloa cartel leader had been kidnapped. But officials had not confirmed that, and Zambada’s age and apparent poor health had led some to speculate that he had turned himself in.

U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar said Friday: “The evidence that we saw … is that they took El Mayo Zambada against his will.”

“This was an operation between cartels, where one betrayed the other,” Salazar said. Zambada’s faction of the Sinaloa cartel has been locked in fierce fighting with another faction, led by the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Guzmán López is the half-brother of the faction leaders.

Salazar said no U.S. personnel, assets or aircraft were involved in the flight on which Guzmán López turned himself in, and that U.S. officials were “surprised” when the two showed up at an airport outside El Paso, Texas, on July 25.

Frank Pérez, Zambada’s lawyer, said in a statement in July that “my client has not surrendered, nor has he negotiated terms with the U.S. government.”

“Joaquín Guzmán López kidnapped my client by force,” Pérez wrote. “He was ambushed, thrown to the ground and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquin. His legs were tied and a black bag was placed over his head.”

Pérez went on to say that Zambada, 76, was thrown into the bed of a pickup truck, forced onto an airplane and strapped to a seat by Guzmán López.

In early August, Zambada appeared in a federal court in Texas for the second time, after being taken into U.S. custody the week before.

Guzmán López had apparently been in negotiations with U.S. authorities for a long time about a possible indictment. Guzmán López, 38, has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Chicago to drug trafficking and other charges.

But U.S. officials said they had little warning when Guzmán López’s plane landed at an airport near El Paso. Both men were arrested and remain in custody, facing multiple drug charges in the U.S.

Salazar said the plane had taken off from Sinaloa — the Pacific coast state where the cartel is headquartered — and had not filed a flight plan. He stressed that the pilot was not American, and neither was the plane.

It has been suggested that Guzmán López planned to turn himself in and that he took Zambada with him to receive more favorable treatment. However, his motives remain unclear.

Zambada was believed to be more involved in the day-to-day running of the cartel than his more famous and flashy boss, “El Chapo,” who was sentenced to life in prison in the US in 2019.

Zambada has been charged in a number of U.S. cases, including in New York and California. Prosecutors filed a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as the “principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing massive amounts of narcotics into the United States.”

The capture of Zambada and Guzmán López – and the idea that one cartel faction had betrayed the leader of the other – raised fears that the already divided cartel could be plunged into a spiral of violent infighting.

It was the unusual step for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to make a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other. ___

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