Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada says he was taken against his will to the US amid conflicting reports of his arrest last month.
The co-founder of the Sinaloa drug cartel says he was kidnapped in Mexico and taken into United States custody against his will, in the latest chapter in a dramatic case that has sparked worldwide attention.
“I was ambushed,” Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada said in a statement released through his lawyer on Saturday, which he said was intended to clear up rumors and misinformation surrounding his capture last month.
US authorities said Zambada was arrested on July 25 along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the sons of another cartel co-founder, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
They were arrested after landing in El Paso, Texas on a private plane.
On Friday, Zambada’s lawyer said Guzman Lopez and six men in military uniforms “forcibly kidnapped” his client near Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, and flew him to the U.S. against his will. .
But the Guzman family’s lawyer denied that an abduction took place, calling it instead a voluntary surrender after prolonged negotiations.
In his Saturday statement, Zambada said he felt it was important that the truth about his detention be revealed, citing what he said were “false stories” about his “abduction.”
He explained that Guzmán López had invited him to a meeting on a farm outside Culiacán on July 25. There, he described how he greeted several people before spotting Guzmán López, who he said he had known “since he was a boy.” .
“He gestured for me to follow him,” said Zambada in his statement, adding that, “trusting” those involved, he followed “without hesitation”.
“I was taken to another room that was dark. As soon as I set foot in that room, I was ambushed,” Zambada continued.
He said a group of men attacked him, knocked him to the ground and placed a dark hood over his head.
“They tied me up and handcuffed me, then forced me into the back of a pickup truck.”
Zambada said he suffered “significant injuries” to his back, knees and wrists during the incident and was later taken to a nearby airstrip and “forced to board a private plane.”
On the plane, he said Guzman Lopez took off his hood and “tied” him to the seat with zip ties. “No one else was on board the plane except Joaquin, the pilot and me.”
Zambada said they flew directly to El Paso, where U.S. marshals took him into custody on the tarmac.
Zambada’s account of what happened comes a day after the US ambassador to Mexico acknowledged that the cartel leader was brought to the country against his will.
“This was an operation between cartels, where one handed over the other,” Ken Salazar said on Friday, adding that no American resources were involved in transporting El Mayo to the US.
The American embassy also said that no flight plan was shared with US authorities and that the pilot was not a US citizen nor had he been hired by the US government.
Zambada was thought to be more involved in the day-to-day operations of the Sinaloa drug cartel than El Chapo, who was sentenced to life in prison by a US court in 2019.
Last week, Zambada appeared in a Texas courtroom while in a wheelchair. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder.
Guzman Lopez, El Chapo’s son, also pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in a US court in late July.
Amid fears of an escalation of violence following the arrests, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took the unusual step of issuing a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other.
More than 450,000 people have been murdered in drug-related violence across Mexico since the government of then-president Felipe Calderón launched a military offensive against drug gangs in 2006.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
