MEXICO CITY — Leader of the Mexican drug cartel Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada said he was ambushed and kidnapped when he thought he was going to meet with the governor of the northern state of Sinaloa, and then taken against his will to the United States, according to a letter released Saturday by his lawyer.
In the two-page letter, Zambada said drug trafficker Joaquín Guzmán López asked him to attend a July 25 meeting with local politicians, including Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya of the ruling Morena party.
But before any meeting took place, he was taken to a room where he was knocked down, a hood was put over his head, handcuffed, and then taken in a van to a landing strip where he was forced onto a plane. private. who finally took him and Guzmán López, one of the imprisoned sons Drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmánto American soil, according to the letter.
Zambada’s comments came a day after the United States ambassador to Mexico confirmed that the drug trafficker was brought to the United States. against his will when he arrived in Texas in July on a plane with Guzmán López.
After Zambada’s comments, which questioned the links between drug traffickers and some politicians in Sinaloa, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked journalists to “wait until they have more information” and listen to the governor’s version.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. When the arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López were announced, Rocha told local media that he was in Los Angeles that day.
In early August, Zambada, 76, made his second appearance in US federal court in Texas after being taken into US custody the previous week.
Guzmán López had apparently been in negotiations with US authorities for a long time about the possibility of surrendering. Guzmán López, 38, pleaded not guilty on drug trafficking and other charges in federal court in Chicago.
But U.S. officials said they received almost no warning when Guzmán López’s plane landed at an airport near El Paso. both men They were arrested and remain incarcerated. They are accused in the United States of various drug-related crimes.
Ken Salazar, the US ambassador to Mexico, said the plane had taken off from Sinaloa (the Pacific coast state where the cartel is based) and had not filed a flight plan. He emphasized that the pilot was not American, nor was the plane.
The implication is that Guzmán López intended to turn himself in and took Zambada with him to obtain more favorable treatment, but his motives remain unclear.
Zambada was thought to be more involved in the cartel’s daily operations than its more well-known and flashy boss, “El Chapo,” who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States in 2019.
Zambada is accused in several American caseseven in New York and California. Prosecutors filed a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as the “principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing enormous quantities of narcotics into the United States.”
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