Two top Sinaloa cartel leaders were arrested Friday in a sting in what Republicans say is a “win for the world.”
“One of the operatives taken into custody, Ismael Zambada García, was arguably the most powerful criminal in Mexico, a septuagenarian kingpin who helped to found the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo decades ago and remained at large even after his partner was extradited to the United States and convicted at a trial in New York City,” according to The New York Times.
“The other was one of El Chapo’s own sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, who with his brothers had inherited a large swath of their father’s illicit business moving massive amounts of cocaine and fentanyl into the United States, Europe and elsewhere,” according to the Times.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez is currently in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago and will appear in court next Monday. Meanwhile, his brother Ovidio is being transferred to another prison. He is under U.S. Marshals Service custody, and not in a Bureau of Prisons facility,… pic.twitter.com/Gmvs5cfxlS
— Illicit Investigations (@illicitinv) July 27, 2024
Their arrest reportedly involved a “dramatic betrayal” during which Guzmán López lured Zambada García onto a plane headed straight for El Paso, Texas, where the police arrested them.
“Mr. Guzmán López had persuaded Mr. Zambada García to join him on the flight by saying they were going to look at real estate, officials said, but the plane instead headed north across the border,” the Times notes.
“While American law enforcement agents had been quietly trying to persuade Mr. Guzmán López to turn himself in almost from the moment that his father, Joaquin Guzman Loera, was found guilty in 2019, it was not immediately clear why he decided to surrender himself and Mr. Zambada García to U.S. officials on Thursday,” according to the Times.
What’s known is that their arrest is a big deal.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Statement on Arrests of Alleged Leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel Ismael Zambada Garcia (El Mayo) and Joaquin Guzman Lopez
: https://t.co/LumvDMKx2F pic.twitter.com/Wcm20MLrhC
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) July 26, 2024
President Joe Biden was pleased by their arrests.
“I commend the work of our law enforcement officials who made this arrest for their ongoing work to bring Sinaloa cartel leaders to justice,” he said. “Too many of our citizens have lost their lives to the scourge of fentanyl. Too many families have been broken and are suffering because of this destructive drug. My administration will continue doing everything we can to hold deadly drug traffickers to account and to save American lives.”
Even Republicans celebrated this rare Biden administration victory.
“I cannot thank the agents of FBI, DEA and HSI enough, you know,” Rep. Tony Gonzalez, whose district lies along the border, told Fox News. “And I’d also say this wasn’t because of the bureaucrats in Washington. This was just good old-fashioned field work.”
“And I think this is what’s something that gets lost in all the political conversations right now, is we’ve got men and women from these agencies that just go to work every day. And I’m just grateful,” he added.
However, Gonzales fretted that these arrests could engender a dangerous power vacuum.
“The reality is every time this happens, sometimes the organization fractures into more tiny little pieces, and they’re even more ruthless than before,” he said. “And, so, we have to look at it through that lens of going, ‘This is a positive thing, but also how do we prepare?’”
El Mayo has been caught!
He was the last remaining of the 37 most wanted drug lords in Mexico. As big or bigger than El Chapo and current head of the Sinaloa Cartel, El Mayo was essentially a ghost having no arrests prior to a few hours ago. pic.twitter.com/CI655AlvAE
— CulturalHusbandry (@APhilosophae) July 26, 2024
Guzmán López has three brothers, one of whom — Ovidio Guzmán López — was arrested in Mexico last September and then extradited to Chicago.
All four are the sons of notorious cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was extradited to the U.S. in 2019, found guilty of a number of high crimes, and is now serving life in ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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