Security Minister Omar García Harfuch suggested Tuesday that a man detained in Sinaloa on Saturday was the pilot of the private plane that transported alleged Sinaloa Cartel leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López to the United States last July.
Zambada and Guzmán López were arrested at the Doña Ana County International Jetport in New Mexico after they disembarked the plane on July 25. Zambada accused Guzmán López — a leader of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel — of kidnapping him and forcing him onto the plane that took him to the United States.
García Harfuch told President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference that Mexico’s Federal Attorney General’s Office was still investigating the suspect arrested on Saturday, but he disclosed that the man — identified as Mauro “N” — is “a trusted pilot of the leader of the criminal cell that has to do with the illegal abduction of the person who was handed over in the United States.”
The security minister announced on social media on Saturday that “after a confrontation in Sinaloa,” soldiers and National Guard personnel detained Mauro “N,” an “aircraft pilot and important operator in the structure of a criminal cell that generates violence in the state.”
“This person is linked to attacks and confrontations with authorities and with the trafficking of drugs to the United States,” García said.
A government statement said that Mauro “N” shot at federal security authorities in the town of Jesús María in the municipality of Culiacán before he was arrested.
The security forces, “upon seeing that their physical safety was in danger, repelled the attack and controlled the situation,” the statement said. No injuries were reported.
Zambada’s arrest in the United States last July led to an escalation in a long-running dispute between the “Los Chapitos” and “Los Mayos” factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. Fighting between the rival factions has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months in Sinaloa, currently one of Mexico’s most violent states.
Sheinbaum, like former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has accused the United States government of involvement in the arrest of Zambada, who remains in U.S. custody.
The Biden administration denied any involvement in the capture of “El Mayo,” and former U.S. ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said last August that the pilot who transported Zambada to New Mexico was not a United States government employee nor was he hired by the U.S. government or “any U.S. citizen.”
With reports from EFE and El Heraldo de México
