Mexican Drug Lord and Sinaloa Cartel Co-Founder, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada Arrested along with Son of El Chapo, Joaquin Guzman Lopez #ElChapo #ElMayo #Sinaloa #Fentanyl

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was arrested by U.S. agents Thursday after a high-ranking Sinaloa cartel member tricked him into flying to Texas, Mexican and U.S. officials said.

Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was on the same plane and also arrested upon landing, a Homeland Security Investigations official said.

Ismael Zambada, 76, co-founded the Sinaloa cartel three decades ago with the elder Guzmán. He leads a faction of the cartel that is considered the leading smuggler of fentanyl into the U.S.

Zambada thought he was going to inspect clandestine airfields in Mexico, but was instead flown to El Paso, Texas, where he and the younger Guzmán were taken into custody on the tarmac, the HSI official said. The joint operation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been in the works for months, the official said.

The U.S. had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to Zambada’s arrest.

It is the latest blow suffered by the Sinaloa cartel, which has been a top target for U.S. law enforcement. In January 2023, Ovidio Guzmán, another son of El Chapo, was arrested and later that year extradited to the U.S., where he faces drug charges. Néstor Isidro “El Nini” Pérez Salas, the top hit man for El Chapo’s children, was captured in November and extradited to the U.S. earlier this year.

El Chapo, a flamboyant drug lord known for his spectacular prison escapes, was extradited to the U.S. in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison in 2019.

Unlike the elder Guzmán, Zambada was known for keeping a low profile. In Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state and the hometown of the cartel, Zambada was seen as a cartel elder who kept order and protected the city from the attacks of rival groups, residents said.

Joaquín Guzmán López is one of four brothers, including Ovidio Guzmán, who are known collectively as “Los Chapitos.” Authorities say that they were also top traffickers of fentanyl to the U.S. Ovidio Guzmán was seen as a pioneer of the fentanyl trade in Mexico.

While Joaquín wasn’t as known as his brothers, he had a $5 million reward for his capture and was seen as the brains behind the Chapitos financial operation. He knew the business much better than his flashier brother, Ovidio, who had “narco corridos,” or drug ballads, written about his exploits, authorities said.

U.S. prosecutors in February filed an indictment charging Zambada with conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl with knowledge that it would be imported illegally into the U.S. He was previously charged with running a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to murder, money laundering and other drug-related crimes.

“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 Thursday.

Zambada owns thousands of acres of farmland and cattle ranches in Sinaloa, and loves prize bulls, said Margarito Flores, once a Chicago pointman for Zambada and El Chapo. From 2005 to 2008, Flores and his twin brother distributed as much as 2½ tons of cocaine and 60 kilograms of heroin supplied by the Sinaloa cartel a month.

“Zambada was very careful about security and didn’t use cellphones,” said Flores, describing the drug lord as someone who eschewed jewelry and gave the appearance of being a simple rancher.

Flores, who after spending 12 years in prison now works with a consulting company called Dynamic Police Training, which teaches law-enforcement officers about how cartels smuggle drugs, says the apparent betrayal of Zambada will likely cause a wave of violence.

“I think it’s the beginning of the end of what was once the most powerful criminal organization in the world,” he said.

Thanks to Steve Fisher and Jose de Corboda.

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Full Details on Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, of the #SinaloaCartel, Guilty Plea and Cooperation with US Feds

A high-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico pleaded guilty a year ago to participating in a vast narcotics trafficking conspiracy and is cooperating with the United States, federal law enforcement officials announced. A written plea agreement with the defendant, Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, was made public in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Zambada-Niebla, 39, pleaded guilty on April 3, 2013, before U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo. Zambada-Niebla was arrested in Mexico in 2009, and he was extradited to the United States in February 2010.

Zambada-Niebla remains in U.S. custody and no sentencing date has been set. Under the plea agreement, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison¸ a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, and a maximum fine of $4 million. If the government determines at the time of sentencing that Zambada-Niebla has continued to provide full and truthful cooperation, as required by the plea agreement, the government will move to depart below the anticipated advisory federal sentencing guideline of life imprisonment. In addition, Zambada-Niebla agreed not to contest a forfeiture judgment of more than $1.37 billion.

“This guilty plea is a testament to the tireless determination of the leadership and special agents of DEA’s Chicago office to hold accountable those individuals at the highest levels of the drug trafficking cartels who are responsible for flooding Chicago with cocaine and heroin and reaping the profits,” said Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Mr. Fardon announced the guilty plea with Jack Riley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Zambada-Niebla pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute multiple kilograms of cocaine and heroin between 2005 and 2008. More specifically, the plea agreement describes the distribution of multiple tons of cocaine, often involving hundreds of kilograms at a time on a monthly, if not weekly, basis between 2005 and 2008. The guilty plea means that there will be no trial for Zambada-Niebla, whose case was severed from that of his co-defendants. Among his co-defendants are his father, Ismael Zambada-Garcia, also known as “El Mayo,” and Joaquin Guzman-Loera, also known as “El Chapo,” both alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.  Zambada-Garcia is a fugitive believed to be in Mexico, and Guzman-Loera is in Mexican custody after being arrested this past February.

Zambada-Niebla admitted that between May 2005 and December 2008, he was a high-level member of the Sinaloa Cartel and was responsible for many aspects of its drug trafficking operations, “both independently and as a trusted lieutenant for his father,” for whom he acted as a surrogate and logistical coordinator, the plea agreement states. Zambada-Niebla admitted he was aware that his father was among the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel since the 1970s and their principal livelihood was derived from their sale of narcotics in the United States.

Zambada-Niebla admitted that he participated in coordinating the importation of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Central and South American countries, including Colombia and Panama, into the interior of Mexico, and facilitated the transportation and storage of these shipments within Mexico. The cartel used various means of transportation, including private aircraft, submarines and other submersible and semi-submersible vessels, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor-trailers, and automobiles.

Zambada-Niebla “subsequently assisted in coordinating the delivery of cocaine to wholesale distributors in Mexico, knowing that these distributors would in turn smuggle multi-ton quantities of cocaine, generally in shipments of hundreds of kilograms at a time, as well as on at least one occasion, multi-kilogram quantities of heroin, from Mexico across the United States border, and then into and throughout the United States, including Chicago,” according to the plea agreement.

On most occasions, the Sinaloa Cartel supplied this cocaine and heroin to wholesalers on consignment, including to cooperating co-defendants Pedro and Margarito Flores, whom Zambada-Niebla knew distributed multi-ton quantities of cocaine and multi-kilogram quantities of heroin in Chicago, and in turn sent payment to Zambada-Niebla and other cartel leaders.  Zambada-Niebla also admitted being aware of, and directly participating in, transporting large quantities of narcotics cash proceeds from the U.S. to Mexico.

Zambada-Niebla also admitted that he and his father, as well as other members of the Sinaloa Cartel, “were protected by the ubiquitous presence of weapons,” and that he had “constant bodyguards who possessed numerous military-caliber weapons.” Zambada-Niebla also admitted that he was aware that the cartel used violence and made credible threats of violence to rival cartels and to law enforcement in Mexico to facilitate its business.

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