STORY: Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of the incarcerated kingpin known as ‘El Chapo,’ is in U.S. custody.
:: Procuradaria General De La Republica
Two U.S. officials told Reuters he was arrested along with El Chapo’s former partner, Mexican drug lord Ismael Zambada, known as ‘El Mayo.’
They said the pair were detained after landing in a private plane on Thursday (July 25) in El Paso, Texas.
It’s a major coup for U.S. authorities – both are major figures in the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations.
The U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that both Zambada and Guzman Lopez face multiple charges QUOTE “for heading the Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.”
:: File
Zambada is one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico’s history and co-founded the cartel with El Chapo, who was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.
:: File
After El Chapo’s extradition, his criminal empire was inherited by four of his sons – known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos– who took over his faction of the cartel and became some of the biggest exporters of fentanyl to the United States.
U.S. federal prosecutors in February charged Zambada with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl,
which the Drug Enforcement Administration says is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
Source Agencies
