Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia has been captured by the US government, according to reports, after a lengthy manhunt that came with a $15 million reward for his capture
The notorious Sinaloa Cartel’s co-founder has been nabbed by US forces, sparking the end of a massive manhunt that had a whopping $15 million bounty on his head.
While the full details of the capture are yet to be disclosed, NewsNation’s border correspondent Ali Bradley reported that Ismael ’El Mayo’ Zambada handed himself over to FBI agents near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in the El Paso, Texas, area. He was arrested alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of another infamous cartel leader.
Bradley’s report suggests he disembarked from an unmarked aircraft and gave himself up to US law enforcement. It is believed that he continued to run the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations while evading capture, collaborating with the infamous cartel boss Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, known as ’El Chapo’. A leader for decades alongside El Chapo, Zambada is one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world and known for running the cartel’s smuggling operations while keeping a lower profile.
The U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Zambada’s capture. The Justice Department said the men were arrested in El Paso but didn’t immediately provide details about how they were taken into custody.
With strong ties to Colombian cocaine suppliers and his cells across the United States, Zambada has been among the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel since the 1970s. The group’s principal livelihood has been the sale of narcotics in the United States, authorities said.
Zambada and Guzman Lopez are facing multiple charges "for leading the cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable," Garland said in a statement.
US authorities have been seeking Zambada’s capture for years. He was charged in the Eastern District of New York with conspiring to manufacture and distribute the synthetic opioid. Prosecutors said he was continuing to lead the Sinaloa cartel, "one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world."
Zambada, one of the longest-surviving capos in Mexico, was considered the cartel’s strategist, more involved in day-to-day operations than his flashier and better-known boss, "El Chapo" Guzman, who was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019 and is the father of Guzman Lopez. Zambada is an old-fashioned capo in an era of younger kingpins known for their flamboyant lifestyles of club-hopping and brutal tactics of beheading, dismembering and even skinning their rivals. While Zambada has fought those who challenged him, he is known for concentrating on the business side of trafficking and avoiding gruesome cartel violence that would draw attention.
In an April 2010 interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, he acknowledged that he lived in constant fear of going to prison and would contemplate suicide rather than be captured. "I’m terrified of being incarcerated," Zambada said. "I’d like to think that, yes, I would kill myself." The interview was surprising for a kingpin known for keeping his head down, but he gave strict instructions on where and when the encounter would take place, and the article gave no hint of his whereabouts.
El Mayo worked his way up from enforcer
Zambada reputedly won the loyalty of locals in his home state of Sinaloa and neighboring Durango through his largess, sponsoring local farmers and distributing money and beer in his birthplace of El Alamo. Although little is known about Zambada’s early life, he is believed to have gotten his start as an enforcer in the 1970s.
By the early 1990s, he was a major player in the Juarez cartel, transporting tons of cocaine and marijuana. Zambada started gaining the trust of Colombian traffickers, allegiances that helped him come out on top in the cartel world of ever-shifting alliances. Eventually he became so powerful that he broke off from the Juarez cartel, but still managed to keep strong ties with the gang and avoided a turf war. He also developed a partnership with "El Chapo" Guzman that would take him to the top of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Zambada’s detention follows some important arrests of other Sinaloa cartel figures, including one of his sons and another son of "El Chapo" Guzman, Ovidio Guzman Lopez. Zambada’s son pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in San Diego in 2021 to being a leader in the Sinaloa cartel.
In recent years, Guzman’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the little Chapos, or "Chapitos" that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. market. They were seen as more violent and flamboyant than Zambada. Their security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November. Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested and extradited to the U.S. last year. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago in September.
Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin ’El Chapo’ Guzman ( Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, said Zambada’s arrest is important but unlikely to have much impact on the flow of drugs to the U.S. Joaquin Guzman Lopez was the least influential of the four sons who made up the Chapitos, Vigil said. "This is a great blow for the rule of law, but is it going to have an impact on the cartel? I don’t think so," Vigil said. "It’s not going to have a dent on the drug trade because somebody from within the cartel is going to replace him," Vigil said.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had previously warned on its "fugitives" page for El Mayo: "Fugitive may be armed and dangerous. Do not attempt to apprehend this individual," alongside the hefty reward offer for information leading to his arrest.
This substantial reward was put forward by the DEA but funded by the State Department, which was eager to see the drug lord behind bars due to pressure from various government bodies.
On its website, the State Department provided extensive background on El Mayo, stating: "Ismael Mario Zambada Garcia is the long-time leader of the Zambada Garcia faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Zambada Garcia is unique in that he has spent his entire adult life as a major international drug trafficker, yet he has never spent a day in jail. With the arrest, extradition, conviction, and sentencing of fellow Sinaloa Cartel faction leader Joaquin Guzman-Loera, a/k/a Chapo Guzman, Zambada Garcia is the unquestioned senior leader of the Sinaloa Cartel."
A $15million bounty was on his head
Detailing the string of allegations placed upon El Mayo over the years, the document, according to the Mirror US, first cites an indictment originating from the District of Columbia in late January 2003, followed by another from the Northern District of Illinois, which encompasses Chicago, late in August 2009.
Midway into April 2012, El Mayo faced an additional indictment from the Western District of Texas, and within the subsequent four years, two more - one filed at the end of July 2014 from the Southern District of California, and another from the Eastern District of New York in the middle of May 2016.
"All of the indictments involve a major violation of U.S. narcotics laws," states the US Department’s release. However, among them all, the charge out of Chicago appears the most severe or at least the most likely to result in El Mayo’s conviction, due to his own son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, testifying against him.
Zambada Niebla was arrested by Mexican authorities back in 2009 and later extradited to Chicago to stand trial. After some time, he pled guilty as reported in the release, agreeing to cooperate further.
Drug trafficker ’El Chapo’ is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican security forces at Mexico’s International Airport in Mexico city in 2014 ( Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He had testified against his father during El Chapo’s trial in Brooklyn held in January 2019. As per the release, he received a prison sentence of 15-year term, in May 2019.
The shocking revelation was that Zambada Garcia’s 2019 testimony also implicated his father, as he "recounted the shipment of tons of drugs by his father."
The release added: "He also testified that his father’s bribery budget was often as much as $1 million per month, with bribes going to many high-level Mexican public officials."
The State Department’s release said: "If you have information, please contact the DEA at +1-619-540-6912, which can accept messages from the social messaging applications, by email at TIPS@usdoj.gov. If you are located outside of the United States, please contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. If in the United States, please contact the local Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations office in your city."
Vicente Zambada Niebla testified against the cartels ( Image: DEA/Wikipedia)
The department noted that the $15 million reward is not only for information leading to the arrest of El Mayo but also information that leads to his conviction - meaning that it didn’t go away when he reportedly turned himself in on Thursday.
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