MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico is now investigating two drug traffickers arrested in the United States last month for their involvement in a series of alleged crimes committed in their home country, with a view to bringing them to the United States, federal officials said Sunday.
US authorities captured Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of Zambada’s former partner Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a stunning arrest late last month near El Paso, Texas.
The two gave different accounts of how they ended up on a plane bound for the small town’s airstrip, with Zambada saying on Saturday that he was tricked by El Chapo’s son and ambushed.
However, Guzman, who is around 38 years old, denied taking Zambada by force and classified the handover as a voluntary surrender after prolonged negotiations between the two drug traffickers and the US government.
Mexico’s Federal Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on Sunday that crimes committed along the way could include murder, kidnapping and illegal detention of a person, illicit use of a flight, illicit use of aerospace facilities, as well as immigration violations and customs.
Mexican authorities did not directly charge Zambada and Guzman on Sunday, but said the alleged crimes were part of the investigation in which the two were involved.
Zambada, who is almost seventy years old, said on Saturday in a statement sent by his lawyer that he was lured to a meeting with Guzmán in the state of Sinaloa, the heart of the cartel.
Sinaloa officials, including Governor Ruben Rocha and Hector Cuen, recently elected federal lawmaker for the next parliamentary term, were also expected to be present at the meeting at a farm on the outskirts of the Sinaloa state capital, Culiacán, Zambada said.
Rocha said Saturday that he was not in Mexico when the encounter occurred, but according to Zambada, Cuen was killed on the farm.
Sinaloa authorities had previously said Cuen was believed to have been killed in a carjacking at a Culiacán gas station.
The federal attorney general’s office said Sunday that Rocha would be invited to speak with state investigators, while also requesting that the state investigation into Cuen’s death be placed under federal purview.
The office added that it searched the ranch and a nearby airstrip that could have been used to fly Zambada and Guzman to the U.S., as well as the airport outside El Paso.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; writing by Kylie Madry; editing by Diane Craft)
