WASHINGTON, DC.—About a year ago—the source cannot give an exact date—capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was allowed to send a letter to Mexico through his lawyers. The letter was addressed to the eldest of the children he fathered with Griselda López: Joaquín Guzmán López.
In it, according to what two sources from the US federal government and two more within the Zambada family tell Proceso, “El Chapo” sent a strange instruction: “You already know who the targets are. “You know what needs to be done.”
What he ordered in that letter was precisely the kidnapping of his compadre Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to hand him over to the US authorities and thus be able to negotiate a series of benefits for both Joaquín and Ovidio Guzmán, another of his sons.
Of these two sons of Chapo, Joaquín Guzmán López is the one who faces the fewest charges in the United States and who could be released from prison in less time. “El Chapo” knew this and what he was looking for was precisely to take advantage of that circumstance, indicate the sources consulted.
“El Chapo’s” strategy, according to sources, was the following: if Joaquín surrendered in exchange for freeing Ovidio, the two could soon be released from prison.
But for that Joaquín needed to hand over someone important, someone who was valuable enough to the United States. And who better than “El Mayo” Zambada?
“El Chapo” thus ordered his next steps: contact United States agencies, plan his surrender, betray “El Mayo” and free Ovidio.
The trap into which “El Mayo” fell was planned by “El Chapo” and operated by the United States Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), according to two sources from a US federal agency. one September afternoon in an Arizona hotel.
The agent, who asked not to reveal his name or position in the agency, explains:
“The idea was Joaquín (Guzmán López), he was the one who contacted us to turn himself in, but he already had the plan to bring someone else who was not part of his family.
According to what was stated by the sources (later corroborated by another source within the Los Chapitos faction), Joaquín would have offered to surrender voluntarily, but required security guarantees and that his brother Ovidio would obtain benefits in his sentence.
“He knew that they were not going to be released from prison, but he asked that we give them benefits. He asked for benefits for both of them, for him and for Ovidio,” says the source.
At a glance
They complied “fully”
The sources within the federal agency who spoke with Proceso acknowledge that they do not know if these benefits were actually granted to the children of “Chapo,” but they assure that what the HSI promised was fulfilled “to the full.”
With pilot and permits
“What the HSI promised was that the operation to have Joaquín surrender and bring in ‘Mayo’ was going to come out clean. The HSI operated on the pilot and the aircraft and the permits to enter the United States and land,” explains the source.
Negotiated benefits
Óscar Hagelsieb, who until 2023 led the HSI office in Ciudad Juárez, says that the benefits that Joaquín Guzmán López could have negotiated were made between the agency, its lawyers and the approval of the United States Attorney General’s Office.
Related
#Chapo #planned #prison #ordered #Mayo #Zambada #plagiarized
