MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican prosecutors said on Wednesday they were investigating the disappearance of two bodyguards on the same day as the dramatic arrest in the United States last month of one of the founders of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel, alongside from the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who co-founded the cartel with Guzmán, said he was kidnapped by his ex-partner’s son and armed men in what he described as an ambush, and then taken on a plane to the United States, where they were they were then arrested.
In a letter shared by his lawyer, Zambada said he was accompanied at the meeting with Guzmán’s son by José Heras, head of the Sinaloa state judicial police, and Rodolfo Chaidez, a “long-time member” of his security team.
The Guzman family’s lawyer said the arrest was a voluntary surrender after years of negotiations.
Sinaloa state prosecutor Sara Quinonez told reporters that both Heras and Chaidez, a former state investigative agent, were reported missing by their families.
She said Heras has been suspended from office and, if found alive, he will be arrested. Heras had been on vacation since July 15 and his family said he was going to visit a relative the day he disappeared, she said.
A prosecutor’s source told Reuters that Chaidez had been an active member of the security forces for several years, working on the investigation, but did not give further details.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said he had no knowledge of how Zambada was arrested on July 25 and rebuked the U.S. government for a lack of transparency.
The U.S. embassy, meanwhile, said the flight that transported Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez from Mexico to an airstrip near El Paso, Texas, operated without U.S. resources and its flight plan was not shared with U.S. authorities. USA.
Both Zambada and Guzman Lopez pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in a US court.
López Obrador urged prosecutors to investigate all the facts of the arrest, seen as one of the biggest blows to Mexican drug trafficking in recent years.
Mexico’s president, however, argues that arresting major crime bosses will not stop the growing consumption of fentanyl in the United States and the thousands of deaths it continues to cause.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; writing by Sarah Morland; editing by Marguerita Choy)
