U.S. Ambassador to Mexico says no U.S. sources had been concerned in transporting El Mayo from Mexico to his arrest in Texas.
The U.S. ambassador to Mexico has acknowledged that drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García was dropped at the US towards his will when he arrived in Texas in July on a aircraft with fellow drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán López, son of notorious cartel boss “El Chapo.”
Zambada Garcia’s lawyer had beforehand claimed that El Mayo, 76, the previous head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, had been kidnapped in Mexico by Guzman Lopez and 6 males in navy uniforms who flew him to the US towards his will.
U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar stated Friday that “the proof we noticed… is that El Mayo Zambada had been introduced in towards his will.”
“This was an operation between cartels, the place one handed over the opposite,” Salazar stated, including that no U.S. sources had been concerned in El Mayo’s entry into the nation.
The lawyer for the Guzman household denied that any kidnapping happened and described it as a voluntary give up after prolonged negotiations.
El Mayo’s arrest has sparked fears in Mexico of a brand new wave of violence and instability, in addition to a potential deterioration in relations with the US, because the ambassador’s assertion got here hours after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador complained that there’s “no cooperation” from Washington to make clear the circumstances surrounding the arrests of Zambada García and Guzmán López.
“Now we have not been given sufficient info,” López Obrador stated at a information convention on Friday.
Salazar stated no U.S. personnel, sources or plane had been concerned on the flight on which Guzmán López turned himself in, and that U.S. officers had been “shocked” when the elder Zambada García additionally confirmed up at an airport outdoors El Paso, Texas, on July 25.
The Zambada Garcia faction of the Sinaloa cartel had been concerned in fierce factional fights with El Chapo’s sons, together with Guzman Lopez, who’s the half-brother of the faction leaders.
Guzman Lopez, 38, had apparently been in prolonged negotiations with U.S. authorities about the potential of turning himself in and pleaded not responsible to drug trafficking and different fees in federal court docket in Chicago.
U.S. officers stated they obtained just about no warning when Guzmán López’s aircraft landed at an airport close to El Paso final month.
Guzmán López is believed to have meant to give up and took Zambada García with him to acquire extra favorable therapy from U.S. authorities, however his motives stay unclear.
Sentenced to life in jail by a US court docket in 2019, Zambada García was regarded as extra concerned within the day-to-day operations of the Sinaloa cartel than its former, better-known boss El Chapo.
Zambada Garcia has been charged in a number of instances in the US, together with in New York and California. Prosecutors additionally filed a brand new indictment towards him in New York in February.
Amid fears of rising violence between drug gangs, President López Obrador took the weird step of issuing a public name to drug cartels to not struggle one another.