MEXICO CITY: Armed men entered through a window to ambush Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the most elusive of the Sinaloa cartel’s leaders, who was then loaded onto a plane, drugged and spirited across the border to the United States, according to details revealed Monday in the plea hearing of the drug trafficker who abducted him.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the 39-year-old son of former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise in federal court in Chicago after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms (pounds) of drugs to the US.
As part of that plea agreement, US prosecutors shared what had been one of the central questions in the hours and days immediately after Zambada fell into US hands in July 2024.
How did the wily drug capo who had stayed ahead of authorities for decades end up in the United States like a present tied with bow?
The plea agreement did not name Zambada, but in the days after his arrest, one of his lawyers shared a letter from him that explained he had been called to a meeting with Guzman Lopez and there he had been abducted.
Andrew Erskine, an attorney representing the US government, said Monday the alleged kidnapping of an unnamed individual was part of an attempt to show cooperation with Washington, which he said did not sanction those actions. He also said Guzman Lopez would not receive cooperation credit because of that.
The arrest of both drug traffickers by US authorities angered Mexico’s then-President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, who suspected the US government was behind the operation. Washington denied involvement from the outset, but experts thought it would be virtually impossible to pull off without US authorities having some knowledge.
Erskine described the alleged kidnapping in court, saying Guzman Lopez had the glass from a floor-to-ceiling window removed from a room ahead of the meeting with the unnamed person.
Guzman Lopez allegedly had others enter through the open window, seize the individual, put a bag over his head and take him to a plane. On board, he was zip tied and given sedatives before the plane landed at a New Mexico airport near the border with Texas.
Zambada in his letter said Guzman Lopez had called him to a meeting on the outskirts of Sinaloa state’s capital, Culiacan, along with some local politicians, one of whom was later found dead.
He said when he arrived there were a lot of armed men in green military uniforms, who he assumed were gunmen for the “Chapitos,” as “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons were known. Even though they ran a rival faction within the cartel, Zambada maintained communication with them and appeared to trust Guzman Lopez enough to follow him into a dark room.
On the plane that landed in New Mexico were only the pilot, Zambada and Guzman Lopez. Aboard the plane, Zambada was given a drink containing sedatives, which Guzman Lopez also drank a little of, according to Guzman Lopez’s account.
Rather than congratulating or thanking the US for arresting the elusive Zambada, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said it was studying the possibility of bringing treason charges against Guzman Lopez or whoever else aided in the plot.
The arrests set off a bloody fight in Sinaloa among their respective cartel factions for control of the business, violence that Lopez Obrador’s successor President Claudia Sheinbaum is still dealing with.
With the plea deal, Guzman Lopez’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he is expected to avoid life in prison.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.
Plea deal with son of drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ details abduction of legendary Sinaloa capo
https://arab.news/2c88z
Plea deal with son of drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ details abduction of legendary Sinaloa capo
- Joaquin Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise
- Admits his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of kilograms of drugs to the US
Ethiopia’s prime minister accuses Eritrea of mass killings during Tigray war
- Landlocked Ethiopia says that Eritrea is arming rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport
- Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s government Tuesday for the first time acknowledged the involvement of troops from neighboring Eritrea in the war in the Tigray region that ended in 2022, accusing them of mass killings, amid reports of renewed fighting in the region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while addressing parliament Tuesday, accused Eritrean troops fighting alongside Ethiopian forces of mass killings in the war, during which more than 400,000 people are estimated to have died.
Eritrean and Ethiopian troops fought against regional forces in the northern Tigray region in a war that ended in 2022 with the signing of a peace agreement.
Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told The Associated Press that Ahmed’s comments were “cheap and despicable lies” and did not merit a response.
Both nations have been accusing each other of provoking a potential civil war, with landlocked Ethiopia saying that Eritrea is arming and funding rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport.
“The rift did not begin with the Red Sea issue, as many people think,” Ahmed told parliamentarians. “It started in the first round of the war in Tigray, when the Eritrean army followed us into Shire and began demolishing houses, massacred our youth in Axum, looted factories in Adwa, and uprooted our factories.”
“The Red Sea and Ethiopia cannot remain separated forever,” he added.
Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare.
Gebremeskel said the prime minister has only recently changed his tune in his push for access to the Red Sea.
Ahmed “and his top military brass were profusely showering praises and State Medals on the Eritrea army and its senior officers. … But when he later developed the delusional malaise of ‘sovereignty access to the sea’ and an agenda of war against Eritrea, he began to sing to a different chorus,” he said.
Eritrea and Ethiopia initially made peace after Abiy came to power in 2018, with Abiy winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts toward reconciliation.
In June, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of having a “long-brewing war agenda” aimed at seizing its Red Sea ports. Ethiopia recently said that Eritrea was “actively preparing to wage war against it.”
Analysts say an alliance between Eritrea and regional forces in the troubled Tigray region may be forming, as fighting has been reported in recent weeks. Flights by the national carrier to the region were canceled last week over the renewed clashes.
