Cartel boss ‘El Mayo’ says he was detained before meeting with politician

MEXICO CITY – Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the last of the old-style Mexican drug kingpins, said in a statement Saturday that he was ambushed and secretly flown to the United States after being invited to a meeting supposedly involving the governor of Sinaloa state.

Zambada, 76, and a son of trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán were arrested two weeks ago after they landed at an airport outside El Paso, in a mysterious operation that has raised questions about cartel betrayals and possible U.S. involvement.

The DEA called the detentions an “enormous blow” to the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s top drug-trafficking organizations and the No. 1 supplier of fentanyl to the United States. American officials have denied their agents were involved in spiriting El Mayo out of Mexico

U.S. and Mexican officials have issued conflicting accounts of how one of the world’s savviest drug traffickers had been whisked over the border, with some saying Zambada may have made a deal to turn himself in. The legendary trafficker denied that, in the statement issued by his lawyer, Frank Perez.

Instead, he attributed his arrest to a trap set by El Chapo’s son, also named Joaquín. Zambada’s explanation provided further evidence of a dramatic split between two leading cartel factions – his group, and one led by the sons of El Chapo Guzmán, Zambada’s former partner, who was arrested in 2016.

The account could not be independently confirmed. However, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, said Friday that it appeared Zambada had been brought to Texas against his will. Guzmán, in contrast, gave himself up, the ambassador said. U.S. officials have told the Washington Post that Guzmán, 38, may have been seeking leniency for himself and his 34-year-old brother Ovidio, who was extradited to the United States last year.

The Sinaloa governor, Rubén Rocha, on Saturday denied that he had planned to meet with Zambada, saying he was not even in the state that day. “We don’t have complicities with anyone,” said Rocha, who is a member of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party.

A lawyer for Guzmán has denied he lured Zambada onto the plane or cut a deal with U.S. authorities. Both alleged cartel traffickers have pleaded not guilty to extensive narcotics charges.

Zambada’s story goes like this: He was invited by Guzmán to a meeting on July 25 with Rocha and a former mayor of Culiacan, Héctor Melesio Cuén. The politicians were at odds over who should lead the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Zambada said – and the Sinaloa cartel leaders would help resolve it.

He said he arrived at an event center outside Culiacan, the state capital, just before 11 a.m. and spotted armed men in military uniforms – “who I assumed were gunmen for Joaquín Guzmán and his brothers,” he said.

Zambada had four bodyguards, he said, including one who worked as a state police commander. (That man’s family has filed a report that he disappeared that day). Zambada said he greeted Cuén and followed Guzmán – “whom I have known since he was a young boy” – into a dark room.

“A group of men assaulted me, knocked me to the ground, and placed a dark-colored hood over my head,” he said in the statement. The men tied up Zambada, forced him into a pickup and drove him to a landing strip, where he was forced onto a private plane, he said. Guzmán “bound me with zip ties to the seat,” the statement said.

Three hours later, the plane landed just outside El Paso.

The Sinaloa cartel is famous for its close ties to politicians – one of the reasons for the group’s longevity. Mexican media have speculated that Zambada could deliver a trove of information to U.S. authorities on official complicity in the drug trade.

When Rocha ran for governor in 2021, cartel operatives contributed to his victory by kidnapping more than 20 political operatives working for his opponent on the eve of the election, according to an account by the Sinaloa investigative magazine RioDoce. State officials put the number at 10. None of the cases have been solved. That opposition candidate, Mario Zamora Gastélum, told reporters that it was difficult to produce evidence, since “people are too afraid to document it.”

Rocha has consistently denied cooperating with cartels.

Cuén, the other politician Zambada said was at the meeting, wound up dead. Mexican authorities said he was fatally shot while in his car the evening of July 25. But Zambada offered a different account, saying he “was killed at the same time, and in the same place, where I was kidnapped.”

The split in the top ranks of the Sinaloa cartel has raised fears of a new narco war. But Zambada urged peace. “Nothing can be solved by violence,” his statement said.

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Marcos Vizcarra in Culiacan, Sinaloa, contributed to this report.