MEXICO CITY (AP) — The arrest of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the last of Mexico’s old drug lords, marks the beginning of a new era for the Sinaloa Cartel — one of the most powerful in the world — that experts believe could lead to more violence in Mexico and a considerable flow of information from legal proceedings in U.S. courts.
Zambada, who eluded authorities for decades and never set foot in jail, was one of Mexico’s oldest and most astute drug lords, known for his corrupting power and negotiating skills with everyone, including opposing groups, all the experts consulted agreed.
Once they disappear from the criminal scene, an internal war for control of the cartel could break out – as has happened in the past following the arrests or deaths of important bosses – and the more violent techniques used by younger drug lords could prevail.
That’s why the Mexican government on Friday reinforced its military deployment in Sinaloa by sending 200 members of the Army’s Special Forces unit to its capital, Culiacán.
There is “significant potential for an escalation of violence in Mexico,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a researcher at the Brookings Institution think tank. “That is bad for Mexico, bad for the United States, and there is the possibility that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — the Sinaloa Cartel’s main enemy and considered by the government to be more bloodthirsty — will increase its great power.”
The investigator therefore indicated that although the arrest can be considered “a great tactical success” it may not be a “strategic” success in the fight against drug trafficking.
Details trickle in
While further official details about Zambada’s arrest are lacking, what is known so far, a U.S. official told AP, is that Zambada was tricked into flying to Texas, where he was arrested with Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the former cartel leader who was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison in 2019.
Mexican Public Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said a small plane took off from Hermosillo airport in the border state of Sonora with an American pilot. Flight tracking service FlightAware showed the plane stopped transmitting its altitude and speed for about 30 minutes Thursday while over the mountains of northern Mexico before resuming its course toward the U.S. border.
“It is a fact that one came from here and three arrived there,” said Rosa Icela Rodríguez. The details in between are still to be known.
Frank Pérez, one of Zambada’s lawyers, said that his client did not turn himself in.
José Reveles, a Mexican author of numerous books on the cartels, said that everything points to the fact that “they set a trap” for “El Mayo,” because Guzmán López “is neither his friend nor his collaborator, but rather he is part of the group ‘Los Chapitos’,” a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel different from Zambada’s and formed by the sons of “El Chapo.”
However, Reveles considered it feasible that both could go together to visit an airport used by traffickers because the two groups “are together, in fentanyl trafficking.”
“Los Chapitos” are considered one of the main exporters of this synthetic opiate, which is very lucrative and causes so many deaths in the United States, and also one of the most violent and extravagant drug lords than Zambada. Their head of security was arrested by Mexican authorities in November.
Joaquín Guzmán López is one of the lesser-profiled brothers, but according to Reveles, he is accused of being the link to introduce chemical precursors from Asia into Mexico, necessary to manufacture fentanyl, as well as to set up laboratories to manufacture this drug.
Uncontrollable power
Anne Milgram, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said Zambada’s arrest “strikes at the heart of the cartel responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, that kill Americans from coast to coast.”
During the current government, which ends in September, and despite the fact that both governments boast of their good relations, especially since the United States is in the midst of an electoral campaign, Mexico has not managed to control the violence, tensions have grown in the fight against the cartels – which López Obrador replaced with the supposed attention to the roots of insecurity – and mutual distrust remains.
“The power of drug traffickers today is unprecedented in the history of Mexico,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown.
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2024-08-07 15:21:18
