The son of infamous cartel kingpin “El Chapo,” Joaquín Guzmán Lopez, was arrested on U.S. soil last week—though he arrived with a present for American authorities that exceeded even their wildest expectations.
Guzmán Lopez reportedly tricked his dad’s former partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the head of the Sinaloa cartel, into boarding a plane in Mexico on Thursday that ultimately took them both to U.S. soil—where federal authorities took them both into custody.
The cartel scion reportedly masterminded the plan with U.S. authorities, an official familiar with the operation told CNN. That official claimed that Zambada, 76, was lured onto the plane with the promise he and Guzmán, 38, were headed to check out Mexican real estate.
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It remains unclear why Guzmán Lopez betrayed Zambada, though Reuters reports that it was likely to obtain a better plea deal for himself and his brother, Ovidio, who was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the U.S. last year.
The plane took off from Hermosillo, in the Mexican border state of Sonora, on Thursday. It then flew approximately 325 miles north to El Paso, Texas, where Homeland Security was waiting for the men.
Both cartel leaders are staring down lengthy prison sentences stateside, but Guzmán had planned to give himself up all along. Zambada, meanwhile, had no such intentions, his lawyer argued Friday.
Zambada’s counsel claimed in a Texas court that his client was “forcibly kidnapped” in Mexico and brought to the U.S. against his will. He suggested Guzmán didn’t trick his client, but instead forced him to board the plane bound for Texas.
The plane believed to have carried Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, the son of El Chapo, to their arrests in El Paso, Texas.
Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez“He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquín,” the lawyer, Frank Perez, said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head. He was then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and taken to a landing strip. There, he was forced onto a plane, his legs tied to the seat by Joaquín, and brought to the U.S. against his will.”
Perez added the only people on the plane were “the pilot, Joaquín, and my client.”
Both Zambada and Guzmán are now staring down “multiple charges” in connection to Sinaloa drug trafficking, “including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement last week.
Guzmán faces federal indictments in Chicago and Washington for drug trafficking and his leadership role in the Sinaloa cartel, which his father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmvn, used to run before his own arrest and extradition to the U.S.
After the elder Guzmán’s incarceration, Zambada took over the powerful cartel. The younger Guzmán was most recently a leader of the cartel faction known as Los Chapitos.
Anonymous law enforcement sources “familiar with the situation” who spoke to the Times about Guzmán’s operation called the stunt “epic.”
“Epic, once-in-a-lifetime caper,” said a source to the Times. “The old man got tricked.”
The Times added that “it’s unclear to what extent the U.S. agencies were involved in orchestrating the flight carrying the two men—or in the alleged kidnapping, if true.”
Regardless of how it came to be, U.S. officials have taken a victory lap in arresting one of the world’s most infamous drug dealers, who had a whopping $15 million bounty on his head by the U.S. government. Joe Biden said himself that the arrest will “save American lives.”
Unlike El Chapo, who has been incarcerated twice and escaped twice before he was extradited to the U.S. in 2014 to serve a life sentence, Zambada had never spent a day behind bars until now.
