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.