Two of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, including the son of infamous crime boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, were surrendered to U.S. law enforcement agents, the Justice Department confirmed on Thursday evening.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia and Joaquin Guzman Lopez were arrested earlier the same day in El Paso, Texas, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a brief statement.
“Both men are facing multiple charges in the United States for leading the Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” Garland said.
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Guzman Lopez is the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the cartel’s former leader who oversaw its rapid expansion into one of the most violent and wealthy crime syndicates in North America.
“El Mayo and Guzman Lopez join a growing list of Sinaloa Cartel leaders and associates who the Justice Department is holding accountable in the United States,” Garland said. “That includes the Cartel’s other cofounder, Joaquin Guzman Loera, or ‘El Chapo’; another of El Chapo’s sons and an alleged Cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman Lopez; and the Cartel’s alleged lead sicario, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, or ‘El Nini.’”
El Chapo was arrested multiple times by authorities in Mexico before his eventual extradition to the United States in 2017. He is currently serving a life sentence in ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison in Colorado.
“El Mayo” Zambada was one of the cartel’s co-founders alongside El Chapo, and took over running the business after his arrest and extradition, according to an indictment in February.
Under his leadership, as well as the leadership of El Chapo’s sons known as Los Chapitos, the Sinaloa Cartel expanded into trafficking fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid currently driving an overdose epidemic in the U.S.
“With fentanyl the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, we must continue to hold Zambada Garcia and other cartel leaders, members, and associates accountable for the people they have killed,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in February.
