United States The Department of Justice has said that Mexico K. Sinaloa Drug mafia The alleged ringleader, Ismail ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, was arrested by authorities in Texas on Thursday.
Zambada, who is over 70 years old, is believed to have been involved in mafia-trafficking activities for decades while remaining undercover.
The powerful Sinaloa drug mafia specializes in the smuggling and money laundering of drugs, including the narcotic substance called fentanyl.
Zambada was arrested along with Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of his former associate Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, authorities said.
Zambada is one of the greatest traffickers in Mexican history. He co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo.
El Chapo was extradited to the United States in 2017. He is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.
According to authorities, Zambada was asked by a leading member of the Sinaloa cartel to fly to Texas under the pretense.
Zambada and Lopez, who are believed to be in their 30s, were taken into custody after the private plane landed in the El Paso area, according to two U.S. officials.
Witnesses at the Santa Teresa airport said they saw a ‘very calm and orderly scene’ on the runway where federal agents were waiting for the two to disembark from the Beechcraft King Air.
“Both got off the plane and were taken into custody peacefully,” said an official working at the airport on condition of anonymity.
A reward of up to 1.5 million dollars was offered for any information about Zambada that would lead to his arrest.
The two men arrested have been charged with “manufacturing fentanyl and leading the mafia’s criminal operations, including operating sigiling networks.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Fentanal addiction is the deadliest threat our country faces, and the Department of Justice will not rest until the mob responsible for poisoning our citizens is brought to justice.” Each leader, member and individual is not held accountable.
On Zambada earlier this year New York The Eastern District of K. was charged with conspiracy to manufacture and deliver fentanyl.
Prosecutors described him as the leader of ‘one of the most violent and powerful drug-trafficking organisations’.
US authorities have accused the Sinaloa cartel of being the country’s largest supplier of fentanyl.
Zambada is one of Mexico’s longest-serving mafia bosses and was seen as the cartel’s mastermind who participated in day-to-day operations.
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Zambada, a notorious undercover smuggler, said in an interview in 2010 that he would rather commit suicide than go to jail. He was afraid of imprisonment.
Zambada said: ‘I fear imprisonment.’ “I like to think that I’m going to kill myself,” he told Mexican magazine Proceso.
They focused mostly on the illegal business of smuggling and avoided brutal torture by cartels such as beheading, dismemberment and skinning of opponents because such acts could attract attention.
One of Zambada’s sons pleaded guilty to being a Mafia leader in San Diego federal court in 2021.
El Chapo, considered more violent and attention-seeking than Zambada, led a mafia faction that was one of the largest traffickers of fentanyl in the US market, known as the Little Chapos or ‘Chapitos’. used to go
His security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November last year. A $5 million reward was offered for information leading to Lopez’s arrest.
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2024-07-27 00:51:58
