Sinaloa Cartel: How One of the Biggest Cartel Busts in Recent Years Came to Be

CNN
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How did an alleged cartel baron who had evaded capture for more than half a century end up in the hands of U.S. federal agents?

According to officials, it all started with betrayal.

New details continue to emerge about what led to last week’s one of the most significant and shocking cartel busts in recent years.

U.S. officials who spoke to CNN say a key figure in the operation to arrest Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was another senior cartel figure who was arrested with him.

Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of convicted cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, defrauded Zambada and arranged their arrests, officials told CNN.

Zambada, 76, thought he and Guzmán López were flying to northern Mexico to look at properties, officials said. But instead, their small private plane landed north of the border near El Paso, Texas, where U.S. authorities were waiting on the tarmac.

But how was Guzmán López able to pull off the fraud officials described? And why did he turn on Zambada?

So far, we have not heard from either man about what happened. Zambada pleaded not guilty to all charges during his first federal court appearance Friday.

“I don’t normally comment on my criminal cases. I will say, however, that my client did not come to the United States voluntarily,” his attorney, Frank Perez, told CNN.

Guzmán López, 38, is expected to appear in federal court in Chicago on Tuesday, his attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, told CNN.

Lichtman said in an email that he would appear in court with Guzmán López, adding, “I look forward to meeting with Joaquín and working on this case together.” He declined to comment further.

One cartel expert told CNN he had doubts about some of the details officials shared.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the story changed overnight or next week,” said Steven Dudley of InSight Crime, who has spent more than a decade investigating drug trafficking and organized crime.

And as reporters demanded answers at a controversial news conference Friday, the Mexican president suggested he, too, had many questions about what happened.

“The United States government must present a complete report. It cannot be just general statements,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said. “There must be transparency.”

This much is clear: The arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López represent a significant step in a decades-long effort to capture and prosecute the alleged cartel leaders. And the details that have emerged so far about what led up to that dramatic moment offer a telling glimpse into the inner workings of what authorities describe as one of the world’s most notorious and nefarious criminal enterprises.

It wasn’t the first time authorities had their eye on Zambada.

In an interview with Mexican magazine Proceso in 2010, Zambada said the Mexican military had come close to capturing him at least four times before.

“I escaped through the highlands, where I know the branches, the streams, the rocks, everything. They catch me if I stand still or if I’m not careful, like El Chapo,” he said.

Zambada then told Proceso that the fear of capture tormented him constantly.

“I’m afraid they’ll lock me up,” he said.

That 2010 interview was one of his last known public appearances for the distinctly lesser-known Zambada. His name made international headlines in 2018 and 2019 during the high-profile trial of Guzmán, whose lawyer argued that Zambada was the cartel’s true leader.

Lichtman, the defense attorney, also represented the elder Guzmán and accused Zambada at the time of bribing the Mexican government to frame El Chapo and allow him to run the cartel freely.

In 2021, U.S. authorities increased the reward for information leading to Zambada’s arrest to $15 million.

Over the years, Zambada’s legendary ability to evade capture has been referenced in narcocorrido ballads about him. The 2022 corrido “Señor Zambada,” performed by El Fantasma and Enigma Norteño from Zambada’s perspective, includes the lines: “I know very well that they want to catch me, that the government wanted to lock me up. But they’ll keep wanting it, because no matter how hard they search, they won’t find me.”

His elusive reputation has also caught the attention of his enemies, former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mike Vigil told CNN.

“Mayo Zambada, before (Thursday) and over 50 years of involvement in drug trafficking, had never been caught, had never served time,” Vigil said, “so he is highly respected even by his rivals.”

InSight Crime’s Dudley highlighted this aspect of Zambada’s past when he told CNN en Español that he was skeptical of stories that portrayed the Sinaloa cartel leader as an unwitting victim who was tricked into capturing him.

“I’m not 100 percent convinced that this happened. I see El Mayo Zambada as someone who is older. He’s 76 years old. I see someone who is also experienced, someone who knows exactly when and where every fraud is coming from,” Dudley said. “That’s why he never set foot in prison until yesterday. So I have my doubts. I mean, I think we’re still missing information.”

Officials who spoke to CNN said Zambada boarded a plane with Guzmán López on Thursday, thinking they would be investigating a property near the border together. Zambada did not realize that U.S. investigators were exploiting a split in the Sinaloa cartel, one of the officials said, and that Guzmán López was actually helping to capture Zambada.

The long-running power struggle between Zambada and El Chapo’s sons, also known as the Chapitos, was about to explode.

Homeland Security Investigations agents who led the operation were initially skeptical when Guzmán López made the offer, an official familiar with the operation told CNN.

But when the plane they were flying on landed at Santa Teresa Airport near El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, federal agents were waiting for it.

An airport employee told Reuters he saw the Beechcraft King Air plane land on the runway on Thursday afternoon, where federal agents were waiting.

“Two people got off the plane … and were calmly detained,” said the man, who did not want to give his name out of fear for his safety.

“Everything seemed pretty calm and organized,” he added.

A source told CNN that the whole operation went surprisingly smoothly, considering the seriousness of the arrests and the disruption it could have caused to the drug trade from Mexico.

Now that Zambada and Guzmán López are in U.S. custody, authorities are poised to pursue criminal charges against them.

Both Zambada and Guzmán López have been charged in the U.S. for allegedly directing the cartel’s criminal operations, including “deadly fentanyl production and trafficking networks,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement after the arrests.

Top U.S. officials have trumpeted the arrests as a major victory. But some analysts were more measured in their assessment of the potential impact.

“It’s obviously a historic acquisition and a symbol. But will it have a spillover effect or affect the drug trade? I really doubt it,” Dudley said. “So much so because El Mayo has already pulled out of the day-to-day operations and the drug trade world is really different now than it was when he started. It’s much more decentralized. It’s more like a franchise. There are contractors, subcontractors, other contractors. There are a lot of parts that can be easily replaced.”

Speculating on what might happen next, the Mexican president echoed Zambada’s own words in a 2010 interview with Proceso. If he were captured or killed, Zambada said that, in principle, nothing would happen. In the world of drug trafficking, he said, whether the capos are “locked up, dead or extradited, their successors are already there.”

Experts say there is no doubt the arrests, like earlier assassinations of powerful barons, will lead to a new wave of violence as rival groups fight for territory and power.

And no matter what new details emerge, the surprising and dramatic arrests will not be quickly forgotten.

CNN’s Ione Molinares, Fidel Gutierrez, Rafael Romo, Abel Alvarado and Amanda Musa contributed to this report.