Powerful cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ Zambada lured onto plane before being arrested in US

Zambada appeared in federal court in El Paso on Friday morning and pleaded guilty to a series of drug trafficking charges, court records show. Frank Perez, an attorney listed on Zambada’s behalf, did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Friday.

Perez told the Los Angeles Times that Zambada was brought to the United States “against his will.”

“I have no comment, except to say he did not surrender voluntarily,” Perez said.

Zambada, one of the world’s most powerful drug lords, has for years been a prime target of the U.S. government in its efforts to overthrow the Sinaloa cartel, which smuggles vast quantities of drugs across the border. U.S. authorities have offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture.

As Anne Milgram, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said, his arrest “strikes at the heart of the cartel responsible for most of the drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing Americans from coast to coast.”

“Fentanyl is the most dangerous drug our country has ever faced, and the Department of Justice will not rest until every cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Thursday.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that Mexico was still waiting for details about the arrests and was not involved in the operation. While he praised the arrests, he suggested that others could step in to fill the gap. That’s why his administration was focused on addressing the root causes of drug use and related violence, he said.

Mexican National Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said the plane took off with only the pilot from an airport in Hermosillo, Mexico. The FlightAware tracking service showed the plane stopped transmitting altitude and speed for about 30 minutes as it hovered over the mountains of northern Mexico before resuming its course toward the U.S. border.

“The fact is that one person left here and three people got there,” she said.

Zambada is charged in several cases in the U.S., including in New York and California. Prosecutors filed a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as “a principal leader of a criminal enterprise responsible for importing massive quantities of narcotics into the United States.”

Zambada, one of the longest-living capos in Mexico, was considered the cartel’s strategist and was more involved in day-to-day operations than its more flashy and high-profile boss, El Chapo.

Zambada is an old-school capo in an era of younger bosses known for his extravagant lifestyle, club hopping and brutal tactics of beheading, quartering and even flaying rivals. While Zambada has fought those who have opposed him, he is known for focusing on the business side of human trafficking and avoiding the macabre cartel violence that might draw attention.

In an April 2010 interview with Mexican magazine Proceso, he admitted that he lives in fear of prison and would rather commit suicide than be caught.

“The thought of being imprisoned terrifies me,” Zambada said. “I’d like to think that, yes, I would commit suicide.”

The interview was surprising for a baron known for his modesty, but he gave strict instructions about where and when the meeting would take place, and the article gave no information about his whereabouts.

Zambada reportedly gained the loyalty of residents of his home state of Sinaloa, as well as neighboring Durango, through his generosity—sponsoring local farmers and handing out money and beer in his home state of El Alamo.

Although little is known about Zambada’s early life, he is believed to have begun his career as an enforcer in the 1970s. By the early 1990s, he was a major player in the Juarez Cartel, moving tons of cocaine and marijuana.

Zambada began to gain the trust of Colombian traffickers, a loyalty that would help him rise to the top of the ever-changing world of cartels. Eventually, he became so powerful that he split from the Juarez cartel, but he still managed to maintain strong ties with the gang and avoid a turf war. He also began a partnership with El Chapo that would propel him to the top of the Sinaloa cartel.

Zambada’s arrest follows the arrest of other senior Sinaloa cartel figures, including one of his sons and El Chapo’s other son, Ovidio Guzmán López.

Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested and extradited to the United States last year. He pleaded not guilty in September to drug trafficking charges in Chicago. The Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator showed Ovidio Guzmán López was released Tuesday, but Rodríguez said U.S. authorities informed Mexico that he had not been released but had simply had his custody changed.

In 2021, Zambada’s son pleaded guilty in a federal court in San Diego to leadership charges in the Sinaloa cartel.

In recent years, Guzman’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the Mali Chapos, or “Chapitos,” that has been identified as a major exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. Their security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November.