US arrests Mexican drug lord 'El Mayo' and El Chapo's son near El Paso
MEXICO CITY — Mexican drug kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the co-founder of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, is in U.S. custody, two sources familiar with the operation told Reuters on Thursday.
Zambada founded the Sinaloa Cartel along with now-jailed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and he faces a litany of indictments for crimes relating to drug trafficking and organized crime in the United States.
U.S. federal prosecutors in February charged Zambada with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, which U.S. officials say is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued a statement on the arrests of Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez.
“The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. Ismael Zambada Garcia, or 'El Mayo,' cofounder of the Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of its other cofounder, were arrested today in El Paso, Texas," according to the statement.
The Justice Department said the two are facing charges in the U.S. for their roles in running the cartel’s criminal operations, including complex fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.
The two are latest to be targeted by U.S. authorities. Other cartel figures already in custody include: Cartel cofounder, "Joaquin Guzman Loera, or “El Chapo”; another of El Chapo’s sons and an alleged Cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman Lopez; and the Cartel’s alleged lead sicario, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, or “El Nini," the statement reads.
Fentanyl is a deadly drug that has led to a spike in drug-laced overdoses in the U.S.
Where is El Chapo?
Guzman is serving a life sentence in a Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
El Chapo wife
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of "El Chapo" Guzman, was released from a halfway house last year, almost two years after she was sentenced to prison for her role in her husband’s criminal empire and participating in his escape from custody in 2015.
Reuters contributed to this report
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: US arrests Mexican drug lord 'El Mayo' Zambada and Chapo Guzman's son
