Son of 'El Chapo' and Mexican Drug Lord 'El Mayo' Arrested in Texas

The son of renowned cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán convinced the renowned Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, onto an airplane heading for the United States, leading to his arrest on Thursday in Texas, according to press sources and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

According to law enforcement officials who spoke to The New York Times, El Chapo’s son Joaquín Guzmán López led Zambada García to believe he was getting on a private plane to inspect some real estate.

According to a Mexican federal officer who spoke with The Associated Press, Guzmán López, and Zambada García turned themselves in to the police when they arrived in El Paso, Texas.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and influential drug trafficking organizations in the world.”

The cartel’s co-founder is El Mayo. According to Garland, the two have joined a “growing list” of Sinaloa executives that the DOJ is “holding accountable in the United States,” which also includes El Chapo, Ovidio Guzmán López, one of his other sons, and Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, also known as “El Nini,” who is thought to be the cartel’s head sicario.

Both of the individuals who were detained on Thursday are being prosecuted in the United States on several counts for spearheading the cartel’s illicit activities, which include the production and sale of fentanyl.

“The Justice Department will not stop until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Garland declared. “Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced.”

In 2019, El Chapo was given a life sentence in a U.S. jail. His sentencing appeal was denied by a judge in December of last year.

According to the AP, Zambada García has been eluding law enforcement for decades, and the DOJ is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information that leads to his capture.

Zambada García and Guzmán López were allegedly in charge of smuggling “tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

According to The New York Times, Zambada García, who has been a capo in Mexico for a long time, was regarded as the cartel’s strategist and most politically connected leader, having a monthly budget of up to $1 million for bribes. He is facing charges in many U.S. cases; in February, he was accused of plotting to produce and sell fentanyl.

He stated in an interview with a Mexican magazine in 2010 that he would sooner commit suicide than serve time in jail or prison, and he always feared getting arrested. In San Diego in 2021, Zambada García’s son entered a guilty plea after being detained, according to the AP.

They were known as the “Chapitos,” or tiny Chapos, and were thought to have overseen a more colorful operation than Zambada García. Guzmán López and his brother had previously been taken into custody.

Guzmán López was the least powerful of the Chapitos, so while the arrests are significant, Mike Vigil, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s international operations, told the AP that they are unlikely to affect drugs entering the United States.

“The rule of law has suffered a serious setback, but will the cartel be affected as well? Not in my opinion,” he remarked. “Because he will be replaced by someone from within the cartel, it won’t even slightly affect the drug trade.”