WASHINGTON: Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of another infamous cartel leader, were arrested by US authorities in Texas on Thursday, the US Justice Department said.
A leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel for decades alongside Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, Zambada is one of the most notorious drug traffickers in the world and known for running the cartel’s smuggling operations while keeping a lower profile.
A Mexican federal official said that Zambada and Guzman Lopez arrived in the United States on a private plane and turned themselves in to authorities. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized discuss the matter.
The US government had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Zambada’s capture.
Zambada and Guzman Lopez, who have eluded authorities for decades, oversaw the trafficking of “tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said, adding that now they will “face justice in the United States.”
“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.
Mexican authorities didn’t immediately comment on the arrests.
US officials have been seeking Zambada’s capture for years, and he has been charged in a number of US cases. He was charged in February in the Eastern District of New York with conspiring to manufacture and distribute the synthetic opioid. Prosecutors said he was continuing to lead the Sinaloa cartel, “one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world.”
Zambada, one of the longest-surviving capos in Mexico, was considered the cartel’s strategist, more involved in day-to-day operations than his flashier and better-known boss, “El Chapo” Guzman, who was sentenced to life in prison in the US in 2019 and is the father of Guzman Lopez.
Zambada is an old-fashioned capo in an era of younger kingpins known for their flamboyant lifestyles of club-hopping and brutal tactics of beheading, dismembering and even skinning their rivals. While Zambada has fought those who challenged him, he is known for concentrating on the business side of trafficking and avoiding gruesome cartel violence that would draw attention.
In an April 2010 interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, he acknowledged that he lived in constant fear of going to prison and would contemplate suicide rather than be captured.
“I’m terrified of being incarcerated,” Zambada said. “I’d like to think that, yes, I would kill myself.”
The interview was surprising for a kingpin known for keeping his head down, but he gave strict instructions on where and when the encounter would take place, and the article gave no hint of his whereabouts.
Zambada reputedly won the loyalty of locals in his home state of Sinaloa and neighboring Durango through his largess, sponsoring local farmers and distributing money and beer in his birthplace of El Alamo.
Although little is known about Zambada’s early life, he is believed to have gotten his start as an enforcer in the 1970s.
By the early 1990s, he was a major player in the Juarez cartel, transporting tons of cocaine and marijuana.
Zambada started gaining the trust of Colombian traffickers, allegiances that helped him come out on top in the cartel world of ever-shifting alliances. Eventually he became so powerful that he broke off from the Juarez cartel, but still managed to keep strong ties with the gang and avoided a turf war. He also developed a partnership with “El Chapo” Guzman that would take him to the top of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Zambada’s detention follows some important arrests of other Sinaloa cartel figures, including one of his sons and another son of “El Chapo” Guzman, Ovidio Guzman Lopez. Zambada’s son pleaded guilty in US federal court in San Diego in 2021 to being a leader in the Sinaloa cartel.
In recent years, Guzman’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the little Chapos, or “Chapitos” that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the US market.
They were seen as more violent and flamboyant than Zambada. Their security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested and extradited to the US last year. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago in September.
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, said Zambada’s arrest is important but unlikely to have much impact on the flow of drugs to the US Joaquín Guzman Lopez was the least influential of the four sons who made up the Chapitos, Vigil said.
“This is a great blow for the rule of law, but is it going to have an impact on the cartel? I don’t think so,” Vigil said.
“It’s not going to have a dent on the drug trade because somebody from within the cartel is going to replace him,” Vigil said.
US arrests 2 leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel: ‘El Mayo’ Zambada and son of ‘El Chapo’
https://arab.news/4g3zy
US arrests 2 leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel: ‘El Mayo’ Zambada and son of ‘El Chapo’
- Ismael Zambada and Guzman Lopez oversaw the trafficking of ‘tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence’
Trump is fighting the Institute of Peace in court. Now, his name is on the building
- State Department said it renamed the organization to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace to “reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.”
- The takeover of the Peace Institute was also anything but peaceful, with his administration seizing the independent entity and ousting its board before affixing his name to the building
State Department said it renamed the organization to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace to “reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.”
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has renamed the US Institute of Peace after President Donald Trump and has planted the president’s name on its headquarters despite an ongoing fight over control of the institute.
It’s the latest twist in a seesaw court battle over who controls the US Institute of Peace, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on peace initiatives. It was an early target of the Department of Government Efficiency this year.
On Wednesday, the State Department said it renamed the organization to the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace to “reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation’s history.” The new name could be seen on its building, which is near the State Department.
Trump has spent months openly lobbying for a Nobel Peace Prize even though he was passed over for this year’s installment, arguing he had a hand in easing a series of conflicts around the world. But Trump has also ordered strikes on suspected drug vessels off the coast of Venezuela and threatened that attacks on land could be coming.
The takeover of the Peace Institute was also anything but peaceful, with his administration seizing the independent entity and ousting its board before affixing his name to the building.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said: “The United States Institute of Peace was once a bloated, useless entity that blew $50 million per year while delivering no peace. Now, the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, which is both beautifully and aptly named after a President who ended eight wars in less than a year, will stand as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.”
She added, “Congratulations, world!”
George Foote, a lawyer for the institute’s former leadership and staff, said the renaming “adds insult to injury.”
“A federal judge has already ruled that the government’s armed takeover was illegal. That judgment is stayed while the government appeals, which is the only reason the government continues to control the building,” Foote said.
Since March, the headquarters has switched hands multiple times in court actions related to the DOGE takeover. A final decision on its fate is pending in federal appeals court.
USIP has maintained it is an independent creation of Congress and outside the president’s executive authority. The administration argues it is an executive branch organization.
After Trump fired the institute’s board in the the spring, the staff was fired as well and the building was turned over to the General Services Administration.
A federal district court overturned the action in May, putting the headquarters back into the hands of USIP leadership. But that action was reversed weeks later by a federal appeals court.
Employees have been fired twice, and the building is no longer in GSA’s possession. The State Department and the institute have an agreement that allows the State Department to occupy and use the building.
The building is expected to be the backdrop for the signing of a peace agreement Thursday between Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame. High-ranking officials from the African Union, Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Togo, Qatar, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates are also expected to attend the signing, according to Yolande Makolo, a senior adviser to Kagame.
The USIP website remained unchanged Wednesday night, but its lead item was headlined, “President Donald J. Trump to Sign Historic Peace Agreement at USIP Headquarters,” followed by a write-up of the deal between Congo and Rwanda that Trump was overseeing at the institute on Thursday.
The Institute of Peace was created by Congress in the 1980s. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in 1985. Described as an independent, nonprofit think tank funded by Congress, its mission has been to work to promote peace and prevent and end conflicts while working outside normal channels such as the State Department. It was operating in 26 conflict zones, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali and Burkina Faso, when DOGE shut the operation down.
As had been broadly speculated, Trump was awarded a new peace prize from FIFA on Friday, on the sidelines of the World Cup draw. FIFA president Gianni Infantino had made it clear that he thought Trump should have won the Nobel for his efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
“This is your prize, this is your peace prize,” Infantino said. He has repeatedly spoken about soccer as a unifier for the world, but the prize is a departure from the federation’s traditional focus on sport.
