The son of infamous cartel kingpin El Chapo, Joaquín Guzmán, was arrested on U.S. soil last week, but it appears he may be getting the last laugh in a longtime feud.
That’s because Guzmán reportedly tricked his dad’s former partner, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, of the Sinaloa cartel, into boarding a plane in Mexico on Thursday that ultimately landed on U.S. soil—where federal authorities took them both into custody.
Guzmán reportedly masterminded the plan with U.S. authorities, an official familiar with the operation told CNN. That official claimed that Zambada, 76, was lured onto the plane with the promise he and Guzmán, 38, were headed to check out Mexican real estate.
The plane took off from Hermosillo, in the Mexican border state of Sonora, on Thursday. It then flew approximately 325 miles north to El Paso, Texas, where Homeland Security was waiting for the men.
Both cartel leaders are staring down lengthy prison sentences stateside, but Guzmán had planned to give himself up all along. Zambada, meanwhile, had no such intentions, his lawyer argued Friday.
Zambada’s counsel claimed in a Texas court that his client was “forcibly kidnapped” in Mexico and brought to the U.S. against his will. He suggested Guzmán didn’t trick his client, but instead forced him to board the plane bound for Texas.
The plane believed to have carried Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzmán Lopez, the son of El Chapo, to their arrests in El Paso, Texas.
Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez
“He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquín,” the lawyer, Frank Perez, said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. “His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head. He was then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and taken to a landing strip. There, he was forced onto a plane, his legs tied to the seat by Joaquín, and brought to the U.S. against his will.”
Perez added the only people on the plane were “the pilot, Joaquín, and my client.”
Both Zambada and Guzmán are now staring down “multiple charges” in connection to drug trafficking, “including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement last week.
Guzmán faces federal indictments in Chicago and Washington for drug trafficking and his leadership role in the Sinaloa cartel, which his father used to run before his own arrest and extradition to the U.S.
After “El Chapo’s” incarceration, Zambada took over the powerful cartel. Guzmán was most recently a leader of the cartel faction known as Los Chapitos.
Son of ‘El Chapo’ Extradited to the United States From Mexico
Anonymous law enforcement sources “familiar with the situation” who spoke to the Times about Guzmán’s operation called the stunt “epic.”
“Epic, once-in-a-lifetime caper,” said a source to the Times. “The old man got tricked.”
The Times added that “it’s unclear to what extent the U.S. agencies were involved in orchestrating the flight carrying the two men—or in the alleged kidnapping, if true.”
Regardless of how it came to be, U.S. officials have taken a victory lap in arresting one of the world’s most infamous drug dealers, who had a whopping $15 million bounty on his head by the U.S. government. Joe Biden said himself that the arrest will “save American lives.”
Unlike El Chapo, who has been incarcerated twice and escaped twice before he was extradited to the U.S. in 2014 to serve a life sentence, Zambada had never spent a day behind bars until now.
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Source Agencies
