Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and the son of his former associate, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, have been arrested in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, the US Justice Division mentioned.
“The Division of Justice has arrested two further alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the vital violent and highly effective drug trafficking organizations on this planet,” the division mentioned in a press release.
Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, El Chapo’s son, face a number of fees in the USA “for main the Cartel’s legal operations, together with its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” based on the assertion.
Guzman Lopez’s arrest was first reported by Reuters, forward of the Justice Division’s assertion.
Two U.S. officers informed Reuters that Zambada and Guzman Lopez have been detained after touchdown on a non-public airplane.
Zambada is likely one of the most necessary drug traffickers in Mexican historical past and co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo, who was extradited to the USA in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security jail.
Following El Chapo’s extradition, his legal empire was inherited by 4 of his sons, often known as Los Chapitos, who took management of his faction of the cartel and have become a few of the largest exporters of fentanyl to the USA.
El Mayo and Los Chapitos have had a contentious relationship since El Chapo’s extradition, and the arrests of the 2 traffickers may set off instability and even violence in Mexico.
In February, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Zambada with conspiracy to fabricate and distribute fentanyl, which the DEA says is the main reason for loss of life amongst People ages 18 to 45.