El Mayo Zambada: The Elusive Mastermind of the Sinaloa Cartel
The chief of yet another well-known drug syndicate, the Sinaloa cartel from Mexico, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, has been apprehended in El Paso, Texas, by US federal agents.
Zambada was 76 years old and the co-founder of the criminal group together with Guzman, El Chapo, who is already behind bars in the US.
Apprehended with Zambada on Thursday, the US Justice Department said, was Guzman’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez.
El Mayo Zambada:
In February, Zambada was charged by US prosecutors together with other people involved in a conspiracy to make and distribute fentanyl, a drug more potent than heroin that has been linked to the US opioid epidemic.
The US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, said on Thursday evening in a written statement that the duo is the leader of “one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world.”.
“El Mayo Zambada and Guzman Lopez are the new additions to the list of Sinaloa cartel leaders and associates that the Justice Department seeks to bring to book in the United States,” said Mr. Garland.
Perhaps, fentanyl is the most deadly drug threat in America, and the Justice Department will stop at nothing to ensure that every single cartel leader, member, and associate involved in the poisoning of communities is dealt with appropriately,” noted Mr. Garland, the top law enforcement officer in the US.
The US justice system argues that the Sinaloa cartel is the main producer of narcotics that are brought into the country.
US authorities have in the past pointed out that fentanyl is now the leading killer of Americans in this age bracket.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had been putting out a reward of up to $15 million (£12 million) for Zambeula’s capture.
In 2019, during the trial of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, his lawyers said that Zambada was shielding himself by bribing virtually all the tiers of the Mexican government.
“In truth, he controlled nothing,” Lichtman stated, referring to his client Guzman, “El Mayo Zambada did,” he alleged.
Indeed, Zambada owns several legal enterprises in Mexico besides his drug business: a milk company, a bus line company, and a hotel; he also controls several plots of land.
In the US, he stands trial on charges associated with drugs; fentanyl, and other crimes such as; murder, kidnapping, money laundering, and organized crime.
In May, Zambada’s nephew, Eliseo Imperial Castro, known as “Cheyo Antrax,” was killed in a Mexican ambush. Due to his activities for the Secret Service, he also became wanted by the US authorities.
By today’s standards, Zambada can easily be described as the biggest drug lord in the world and definitely the most influential in the Americas.
The suspect has managed to avoid police arrest for decades, and therefore, his arrest has caused a shock in Mexico.
There is not much information referring to the arrests of the two men; however, it can be assumed that the two used a flight to enter the United States.
The Wall Street Journal, quoting Mexican and US officials, claimed that the ODD had plans to arrest him for several months and that a senior Sinaloa cartel member lured Zambada onboard the plane.
Zambada thought he was heading south of the border to oversee secret airstrips in Mexico, the paper said.
With more information in the future, it will indeed be a big catch, as Joe Biden’s administration will term Zambada’s arrest as one of the biggest operations conducted by the DEA in years.
Zambada was one of the founders of the Sinaloa cartel after the dissolution of the Guadalajara cartel at the close of the 1980s.
Although Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was the organisation’s leader and was the more well-known of the two men, people assumed that El Mayo was the boss.
Not only merciless but also very inventive, setting up and sustaining the first contacts with Colombian mafias to deliver cocaine and heroin to the USA.
And more recently, fentanyl.
This leadership of the criminal empire has survived the change of presidents in Mexico and the US, an extensive campaign against drugs by different presidents, and continuous attempts by his rivals in other drug cartel groups to eliminate him.
That is by no means easy in the violent, dangerous, and treacherous environment that he has been invoking as a criminal kingpin for many years now.
But that astounding level of endurance seems to have disappeared in El Paso, Texas—a city that fell victim to the synthetic opioid known as fentanyl, most of which was brought into the country by his organisation.
