Legendary cartel boss was ambushed, drugged and flown to U.S., according to plea deal with “El Chapo” son
Armed men entered through a window to ambush Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the most elusive of the Sinaloa cartel’s leaders, who was then loaded onto a plane, drugged and spirited across the border to the United States, according to details revealed Monday in the plea hearing of the drug trafficker who abducted him.
Joaquín Guzmán López, the 39-year-old son of former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal enterprise in federal court in Chicago after admitting his role in overseeing the transport of tens of thousands of pounds of drugs to the U.S.
As part of that plea agreement, U.S. prosecutors shared what had been one of the central questions in the hours and days immediately after Zambada fell into U.S. hands in July 2024.
How did the wily drug capo who had stayed ahead of authorities for decades end up in the United States like a present tied with bow?
The plea agreement did not name Zambada, but in the days after his arrest, one of his lawyers shared a letter from him that explained he had been called to a meeting with Guzmán López and there he had been abducted.
Andrew Erskine, an attorney representing the U.S. government, said Monday the alleged kidnapping of an unnamed individual was part of an attempt to show cooperation with Washington, which he said did not sanction those actions. He also said Guzmán López would not receive cooperation credit because of that.
The arrest of both drug traffickers by U.S. authorities angered Mexico’s then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who suspected the U.S. government was behind the operation. Washington denied involvement from the outset, but experts thought it would be virtually impossible to pull off without U.S. authorities having some knowledge.
Erskine described the alleged kidnapping in court, saying Guzmán López had the glass from a floor-to-ceiling window removed from a room ahead of the meeting with the unnamed person.
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Guzmán López allegedly had others enter through the open window, seize the individual, put a bag over his head and take him to a plane. On board, he was zip tied and given sedatives before the plane landed at a New Mexico airport near the border with Texas.
Zambada in his letter said Guzmán López had called him to a meeting on the outskirts of Sinaloa state’s capital, Culiacan, along with some local politicians, one of whom was later found dead.
He said when he arrived there were a lot of armed men in green military uniforms, who he assumed were gunmen for the “Chapitos,” as “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons were known. According to a 2023 U.S. indictment, the Chapitos and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and hot chiles to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers.”
Even though they ran a rival faction within the cartel, Zambada maintained communication with them and appeared to trust Guzmán López enough to follow him into a dark room.
On the plane that landed in New Mexico were only the pilot, Zambada and Guzmán López. Aboard the plane, Zambada was given a drink containing sedatives, which Guzmán López also drank a little of, according to Guzmán López’s account.
Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS
Rather than congratulating or thanking the U.S. for arresting the elusive Zambada, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said it was studying the possibility of bringing treason charges against Guzmán López or whoever else aided in the plot.
The arrests set off a bloody fight in Sinaloa among their respective cartel factions for control of the business, violence that López Obrador’s successor President Claudia Sheinbaum is still dealing with.
With the plea deal, Guzmán López’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he is expected to avoid life in prison.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years.
In May, Mexico’s security chief confirmed that 17 family members of the cartel leaders crossed into the U.S. as part of a deal between a son of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration. El Chapo’s ex-wife, Griselda Lopez Perez, and her daughter were among the family members to enter the U.S., local media reported.
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