The leader and co-founder of Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa cartel, along with a son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, were arrested Thursday by the FBI, federal authorities announced.
The Justice Department confirmed that Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez were arrested in El Paso, Texas. One senior official familiar with the arrest told CBS News that Zambada was taken into custody by the FBI without incident along the U.S. border.
“The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Zambada was indicted in Brooklyn in February for fentanyl trafficking among other charges, and both men are facing multiple charges in the U.S. for leading the cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.
Zambada was arrested after having been a U.S. fugitive for many years. The State Department in 2016 had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, and the DEA’s profile of the kingpin said the reward was up to $15 million.
The Tijuana-based Sinaloa cartel is one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations. Zambada founded the cartel along with “El Chapo,” who was captured in 2016 and is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in the U.S. after being convicted on charges including drug trafficking and money laundering. Zambada took over the cartel after “El Chapo” was arrested.
Last year, federal prosecutors in the U.S. unsealed criminal charges against 28 members and associates of Sinaloa — including the three sons of Guzmán — accusing them of orchestrating a transnational fentanyl trafficking operation into the United States. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Justice Department officials blamed the defendants for the loss of hundreds of thousands of American lives from fentanyl.
— Robert Legare and Andres Triay contributed to this report.
