Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the alleged co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded not guilty to U.S. drug charges on Friday after authorities arrested him and a son of a Mexican drug lord in Texas. This significant achievement for U.S. law enforcement could lead to a major shift in Mexico’s criminal landscape.
Court records show that Zambada directed his lawyer to enter a not guilty plea, which U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Berton accepted. At his initial court appearance in Texas on Friday, the court read Zambada, who is believed to be in his 70s and appeared in a wheelchair, his rights and charges according to a transcript. He waived his right to attend the arraignment next Wednesday but must appear in person at a status conference on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone, who will oversee the rest of the case.
Authorities accuse Zambada of being one of Mexico’s most influential traffickers, having co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The U.S. extradited El Chapo in 2017, and he is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison. Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, El Chapo’s son, face multiple charges in the United States for allegedly funneling large quantities of fentanyl and other drugs onto U.S. streets. Fentanyl overdoses have surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45.
Guzman Lopez, who is in his 30s, will appear in court in Chicago next week, according to a U.S. official. Authorities detained the two men after they landed in a private plane in the El Paso area on Thursday. Reuters reported the story first, ahead of a Department of Justice statement on Thursday evening confirming the detentions. On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden praised the arrests and vowed to continue combating drug trafficking.
“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,” Biden said in a statement.
According to three current and former U.S. officials familiar with the operation, Guzman Lopez lured Zambada to the U.S. “My client did not come to the U.S. voluntarily,” said Zambada’s lawyer, Frank Perez. U.S. authorities have made drug bosses key targets, frequently striking plea bargain deals with them in exchange for information that leads to the capture of other high-ranking cartel figures. Reuters could not immediately determine whether a plea bargain deal had been struck.
Zambada and El Chapo’s sons have had a tense relationship since their father was extradited in 2017. Their arrests may trigger instability or even violence in their heartlands in Sinaloa. Mexico’s defense ministry announced on Friday that it had sent 200 special forces soldiers to Sinaloa to enhance security.
A bloody inter-cartel war erupted in 2008 when authorities detained another senior Sinaloa leader. His family members accused El Chapo of orchestrating the arrest with Mexican authorities, triggering a violent fissure between two powerful factions of the crime group. Guzman Lopez is one of four sons of El Chapo, known as Los Chapitos, who inherited their father’s faction of the cartel. Authorities arrested his brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, last year and extradited him to the U.S. Rumors circulated on social media that Ovidio Guzman had been released, but U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement that he “remains in custody in the United States.”
In recent years, U.S. authorities have targeted the Sinaloa Cartel, accusing it of being the biggest supplier of fentanyl to the U.S. The Sinaloa Cartel traffics drugs to more than 50 countries and is one of Mexico’s two most powerful organized crime groups, according to U.S. authorities. Zambada and El Chapo’s sons belong to two different generations of traffickers with differing styles. Zambada is known for being “old-school,” avoiding the limelight and operating in the shadows. El Chapo’s sons, by contrast, have a reputation for being flashy narcos who courted attention as they ascended the cartel ranks. El Chapo’s sons are also known to be more violent and hot-headed than Zambada, who had a reputation as a shrewd operator.
The Texas charges to which Zambada pleaded not guilty include continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics importation conspiracy, and money laundering. The indictment, filed in April 2012, alleges that cartel members under Zambada and El Chapo’s leadership kidnapped a Texas resident in 2009 to answer for the loss of a seized marijuana shipment and kidnapped a U.S. citizen and two members of his family in 2010. Both victims were murdered, and authorities discovered their bodies in Juarez, Mexico.
Mexican Security Minister Rosa Rodriguez said Mexico had been informed of the detentions by the U.S. government but that Mexican authorities did not participate in the operation. She stated that it was unclear whether the two men had been captured or surrendered themselves to U.S. authorities.
“The Mexican government did not participate in this detention or surrender,” Rodriguez said at a press conference.
