The Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has revealed that the United States told Mexico on Aug. 16 that alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García was taken to the U.S. against his will.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the FGR also revealed that it doesn’t know the current location of Ovidio Guzmán López, an alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader who was arrested in Culiacán in early 2023 and extradited to the United States last September.
The FGR set out a timeline of events related to the case of “El Mayo” Zambada and fellow alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín Guzmán López, who were arrested at the Doña Ana County International Jetport in New Mexico on July 25 after touching down at the airport on a private plane.
July 23: Ovidio Guzmán leaves high-security prison
The FGR said that Ovidio Guzmán — a brother of Joaquín Guzmán and one of the sons of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — was released from a high-security United States prison on July 23, two days before his brother and Zambada were arrested.
The agency said it was unaware of Ovidio’s “current status” and of his location in the United States.
United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said on July 26 that he could confirm that Ovidio was still in custody in the United States.
Mexico’s Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said on Aug. 6 that Joaquín Guzmán López turned himself in to United States authorities after reaching an agreement with his imprisoned brother Ovidio Guzmán López to surrender. That would suggest that they both planned to collaborate with U.S. authorities.
However, after Joaquín pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in a Chicago court on July 30, lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman said his client did not have any prior agreement with U.S. authorities.
Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper Milenio reported on Aug. 19 that U.S. authorities were working with the defense teams of Ovidio, Joaquín and alleged Sinaloa Cartel security chief Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas on an agreement that would allow them to receive more lenient sentences.
August 9: Salazar says Zambada was taken to the U.S. against his will
“When the alleged kidnapping of Ismael [Zambada] by Joaquín [Guzmán López] had already been committed, the ambassador of the United States in Mexico publicly stated on Aug. 9 that Ismael had been taken to the United States against his will,” the FGR said in its statement.
Salazar’s wording, however, was not as definitive as the FGR’s statement suggests. In an Aug. 9 statement, the ambassador said that the evidence at the time of his arrival to the United States “indicates that El Mayo was taken against his will.”
In the same statement, Salazar said that:
- Guzmán López surrendered voluntarily.
- No United States resources were used to facilitate Guzmán López’s surrender. “It was not our plane, not our pilot, not our people.”
- No flight plan was presented to United States authorities before the private plane took off. “We understand that the flight began in Sinaloa and landed in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.”
- The pilot is not a United States government employee nor was he hired by the U.S. government or “any U.S. citizen.”
August 10: Zambada declares he was kidnapped
The FGR noted that Zambada’s lawyer, Frank Pérez, released a statement from his client on Aug. 10.
In that statement, Zambada said that he did not go to the United States voluntarily and he didn’t have any agreement with the U.S. or Mexican government.
“I was kidnapped and brought to the U.S. forcibly and against my will,” he said.
Zambada said he was “ambushed” on July 25 after going to a property outside Culiacán where he believed he was going to help resolve a dispute between Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and former Culiacán mayor Héctor Cuén over who should head up the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. He said that Joaquín Guzmán López invited him to the meeting.
Zambada said, “A group of men assaulted me, knocked me to the ground and placed a dark-colored hood over my head.”
He also said he was tied up, handcuffed and forced into the bed of a pick-up truck before being driven to a nearby landing strip and “forced” onto a private plane.
In the same statement, Zambada asserted that Cuén “was killed at the same time, and in the same place, where I was kidnapped.”
The FGR indicated last week that it agreed with his assertion on the location of Cuén’s murder.
It also said that a request for an arrest warrant for Guzmán López on charges of abduction of a person in Mexico in order to hand him over to the authorities of another country had been prepared. The FGR previously said that such actions constitute treason.
August 16: U.S. informs Mexico that Zambada arrived against his will
The FGR said it was informed by the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland, on Aug. 16 that Zambada arrived in the U.S. “against his will.”
The FGR also said that the United States informed Mexico that it was aware of several proposals from Joaquín Guzmán López to turn himself in to U.S. authorities.
Security Minister Rodríguez said in late July that the United States government told Mexico that it was informed on several occasions that Joaquín was considering handing himself in to U.S. authorities, but no deal had been reached when he arrived in New Mexico.
FGR still doesn’t know the identity of the pilot
The FGR said it had been informed that the Beechcraft aircraft on which Zambada and Guzmán López traveled to the United States had been registered in both Colombia and the U.S.
The Attorney General’s Office has requested a range of information about the flight and the aircraft from the United States government, including the identity of the pilot. However, the FGR said it still hadn’t received the name of the person who piloted the plane from Sinaloa to the Doña County airport near El Paso, Texas. It said Thursday that the urgent provision of that information was “essential.”
Zambada pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces in a court appearance in El Paso shortly after he arrived in the U.S. He now appears set to face trial in the same federal court in Brooklyn where El Chapo was convicted in 2019, although his lawyer is opposing his client’s transfer from Texas.
Joaquín Guzmán López is in custody in Chicago.
Luis Chaparro, a journalist who reports on organized crime, said on X on Thursday that both Joaquín and Ovidio would appear in court next month.
“Mexican authorities say they have no clue where Ovidio is in the U.S., but he’ll be present on his next hearing on Sep. 9 in Chicago along with his brother Joaquín,” he wrote.
Mexico News Daily
