Dramatic twist in betrayal during Sinaloa cartel arrests

July 28 (UPI) – The co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel was kidnapped and flown to the United States before being arrested instead of turning himself in, his lawyer said on Saturday. He was betrayed by the son of his notorious business partner.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was arrested and detained on Thursday in El Paso, Texas, along with Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who allegedly co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico with Zambada. Both men are said to have turned themselves in.

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Late Thursday night, authorities announced the detention and arrest of Zambada and Guzman. However, at the time of the arrest that day, there was no evidence that Guzman had lured Zambada onto the plane. That changed on Saturday with testimony from Zambada’s lawyer.

Mexico’s Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said it was not clear whether Zambada or Lopez had been in contact with U.S. authorities or whether the arrests in El Paso were part of a settlement, as the two flew to New Mexico on Thursday and were arrested at a small airport. Zambada’s lawyer said his client had never been in contact with authorities about any kind of settlement, CNN reported.

Now U.S. authorities claim that the younger Guzmán tricked Zambada into trusting him and taking a flight to northern Mexico under the pretext of looking at real estate, the New York Times reported.

Zambada’s lawyer claims that half a dozen men in military uniforms ambushed his client with Lopez’s help.

“Joaquín Guzmán López kidnapped my client by force. He was attacked by six men in military uniforms and Joaquin, thrown to the ground and handcuffed. His legs were tied and a black bag was placed over his head,” Pérez said in a statement.

“He was then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and taken to a runway. There, Joaquín forced him to board a plane. His legs were tied to the seat and he was taken to the United States against his will. The only people on the plane were the pilot, Joaquín and my client,” Pérez added.

The director of the airport to which the two were flying was simply told to expect “two VIP passengers,” USA Today reported.

“I went out to see what was going on,” said Bill Provance, manager of the Doña Ana County International Jetport. The federal agents gave him a short answer. “They said, ‘There are VIPs coming in.'”

Zambada and Lopez have been wanted for decades by numerous federal agencies because of the Sinaloa cartel’s ties to smuggling cocaine and fentanyl into the United States and Europe. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time of their arrest that both men had multiple drug charges in the United States. A $15 million bounty was offered for Zambada, who had evaded capture by Mexican and American authorities for decades.

It is not clear whether Lopez received a lighter sentence for the charge of turning Zambada over to U.S. authorities, but El Chapo’s son was able to use his access to Zambada and Zambada’s trust to accomplish, in a single brief plane fight, what U.S. and Mexican authorities had failed to do for decades: He turned over one of Mexico’s most wanted and notorious drug lords to law enforcement on the U.S. side of the border.

Zambada pleaded not guilty to all charges in U.S. District Court in El Paso on Friday. He is scheduled to appear in that court for a status conference on August 1.

El Chapo Guzman, notorious for escaping from Mexican prisons, was extradited to the United States in 2019 for his ties to the Sinaloa cartel and sentenced to life in a maximum security prison in Colorado.