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Frank Pérez, the lawyer representing Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, the alleged leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, asserted that his client was, in fact, “kidnapped” by ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, alias ‘El Güero’, who was also captured by U.S. agents.
According to reports from Los Angeles Times journalist Keegan Hamilton, the lawyer for ‘El Mayo’ denied that the drug trafficker was tricked by people within the cartel to board a plane bound for the United States, a version propagated by the newspapers The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
“My client neither surrendered nor negotiated any terms with the U.S. government. Joaquín Guzmán López forcibly kidnapped my client,” Pérez said in a statement first published by Times.
Pérez also rejected the assertion that Ismael Zambada García, who pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking, arms, and money laundering, had surrendered or voluntarily turned himself in to authorities.
How the ‘Mayo’ was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López
Zambada, 76 years old, was taken into custody after arriving at an airport near El Paso, Texas, last Thursday, along with Joaquín Guzmán López, 38 years old. In this regard, the lawyer for ‘El Mayo’ indicated that the only people on the plane were “the pilot, Joaquín, and my client.”
“He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquín. They tied his legs and placed a black bag over his head. Then they put him in the back of a truck and took him to a runway. There, they forced him to board a plane, with his legs tied to the seat by Joaquín, and they took him to the United States against his will,” he detailed.
According to Pérez’s account to the newspaper, Zambada ‘fell’ into a trap when he was summoned to a meeting with Guzmán López as the leader of ‘Los Chapitos,’ one of the warring factions within the Sinaloa Cartel. Zambada was traveling with poor security measures, making him vulnerable to his rival.
Los Angeles Times mentions that sources familiar with the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly claimed that Zambada had been somehow tricked into boarding the plane that took him to U.S. soil.
“An epic prank, a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” a police source working in Mexico reportedly said. “They tricked the old man.”
However, thus far, the U.S. Department of Justice has not commented on the statements made by lawyer Frank Pérez.
