Within the ranks of Ismael Zambada García, El Mayo, the pieces of the complex puzzle of the FBI operation that ended with the surprise capture of the veteran and experienced Mexican drug trafficker are beginning to fall into place.
According to a secretary of El Mayo, Iván and Alfredo Guzmán, leaders of Los Chapitos, had summoned the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel for an urgent matter. They asked his brother Joaquín Guzmán López, alias Güero and/or Moreno, to be the decoy.
According to this version that circulates within the ranks of the Zambadas, Ismael Zambada Sicairos, alias Mayito Flaco, who is El Mayo’s right-hand man in managing his criminal businesses and protecting the family, had warned his father not to go to the meeting.
He expressly asked him to do so because of the chain of violence and broken promises of Los Chapitos, but the capo ignored his son and fell into a trap in which he ended up on a plane with Joaquín Guzmán Junior to be arrested in New Mexico by the United States government.
May is sick
“Mayo was no longer the vigorous character he once was, he was increasingly weakened by diabetes,” said one of the informants, “he didn’t want to fight with Los Chapitos, that’s why he went to the meeting.”
The operation was planned by the FBI for more than a year, according to what a source of information who participated in phases of the plan revealed to me last week, and Joaquín Guzmán Junior played an important role in bringing El Mayo to the United States.
It is now understood, according to the version circulating in the most informed circles of Los Zambada, that not only Joaquín, but also Iván and Alfredo were part of the plan.
Due to the deadly tension between Los Zambada and Los Chapitos, it is said that El Mayo spent a lot of time in Durango, where he felt protected by the Cabrera Sarabia brothers, his partners in drug trafficking for years, and in Sonora.
In the past, he spent most of his time in El Álamo, in the Culiacán district, where he has his main ranch, and he used to receive family members, associates and officials from all levels of government. But since Los Chapitos’ territorial control in Culiacán is total, the cartel leader no longer felt safe.
One of the latest violent events between the two factions was the execution of Eliseo Imperial Castro, alias Cheyo Antrax, nephew of The May and member of his group of hitmen The Anthrax. Within the Zambada family, the Chapitos’ hitmen are blamed, which is why Mayito Flaco was opposed to his father going to the meeting.
Sources linked to the Zambadas confirm that the boss, despite having health problems, continued to control drug shipments and agreements with the political class, officials and the military. The two men he trusted most were his son Mayito Flaco and his son-in-law, Juan Carlos Félix Gastelum, alias Chavo Félix, husband of his daughter Teresita Zambada Ortiz.
“His trusted people were in shock after the arrest,” said one of the informants.
Strong headed
According to the interview that Dámaso López Serrano, alias Mini Lic, gave me in 2023, published in my book “The Secret History. AMLO and the Sinaloa Cartel” El Mayo was demanding and arrogant with his children. Mini Lic knew him well.
Describing it he said:
“He is a decent man, obviously with words like Sinaloa, but more carefully, although he is energetic, and with his family he is different, he is authoritarian and speaks rudely. ‘Son of a bitch’, ‘This idiot’, things like that; with his family he brings out his true self and explodes. He is not evil, but he likes that what he says is done, whatever it is, he likes to have the last word and by all means he tries to get what he says done.”
This time, by not listening to his son, El Mayo fell into a trap that led to his arrest.
Mini Lic’s family has been affected by the beginnings of the wave of violence with incalculable consequences in what everything indicates will be a war between the factions of the Zambada and Los Chapitos and against all those who consider themselves to be supporting their plans.
On July 28, the Dámaso family chapel in El Dorado was destroyed and looted in Culiacán, and the bodies of Mini Lic’s grandfather and uncle were desecrated, removed from their graves, and stolen.
Version war
In the last few hours, there have been many journalistic reports of an alleged kidnapping of El Mayo in Mexican territory. According to the version published by journalists in CrashOut MediaZambada was reportedly captured in Culiacán inside a home, in an operation by Joaquín Guzmán Júnior and alleged United States agents.
Since Zambada García’s arrest on July 25, I have spoken to various sources. From the U.S. government side, the information I have gathered is that there was no direct intervention on July 25 by U.S. agents on Mexican soil.
It is said that the operation was studied for several months by the FBI under the supervision of prosecutors. Various ways of achieving the arrest of El Mayo were discussed, but none of them considered asking for collaboration from the Mexican government due to the distrust that information would be leaked to Zambada’s faction and that months of work would be ruined forever. Neither was the direct intervention of US agents in Mexican territory considered.
Sources close to the case say that no prosecutor would have allowed American agents to participate directly in an alleged kidnapping of The Mayo because it could easily be used as an argument by the drug trafficker and his lawyers to undermine the legality of the arrest.
It is noted that no effort had been made for more than a year to make an arrest in conditions that would later affect the trial and be used to disprove the charges against him before a jury.
It is said that when the American authorities learned that the plane carrying Joaquín Guzmán Junior was on its way to the United States, they were not sure whether or not they had achieved their objective of bringing back the legendary drug trafficker who for six decades was the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel without ever setting foot in jail.
According to the arrest warrant document, the arrest occurred in El Paso, Texas, and not in New Mexico, as had initially been reported.
It is reiterated that El Mayo did not surrender, but that the arrest was so surprising that it caught his faction off guard and began to generate tensions within the gang, where it is said that the veteran drug trafficker’s carelessness and overconfidence put his subordinates, partners, allies, accomplices and even his own family in danger.
Mayo, victim or victimizer?
Mayo Zambada has appointed two defense attorneys: Frank A Perez and Raymundo Velarde, each from different law firms. Perez was also the defense attorney for Vicente Zambada Niebla, the drug lord’s son, in the final stages of his trial in the Northern District Court in Chicago, Illinois.
Perez told journalist Keegan Hamilton, editor of Los Angeles Timesthat his client was “ambushed” by a group of 6 people in military-style uniforms and Joaquín Júnior.
“They tied his legs and placed a black bag over his head. Then they threw him into the back of a pickup truck and took him to a landing strip. There they forced him onto a plane, Joaquin tied him to the seat and brought him to the United States against his will,” Perez said, describing the incident as if it were a kidnapping.
The lawyer did not mention whether U.S. government officials were involved, and said only one pilot, El Mayo, and Joaquín Guzmán López were on board.
It should be noted that for decades it has been common for hitmen from the different factions of the Sinaloa Cartel to wear military-style uniforms and weapons.
In the investigation I am conducting, I have learned that on several occasions Frank Pérez had traveled from the United States to Sinaloa to meet with El Mayo, before his capture.
The information regarding El Mayo’s physical condition is that he did not report that he had been beaten and kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán Junior, or by American authorities, on the four occasions in which he had the opportunity to do so.
The first was when he had contact with the arresting officers who arrested him upon landing on American soil. There they read him his rights, as indicated by the Miranda Law. Ismael Zambada García is said not to have reported the alleged kidnapping or the beatings.
The second time was when he was processed, that is, when his fingerprints, general information and his first statement were taken. There he was able to report the events to the agents but he did not say anything about the alleged events.
The third opportunity that the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel had was when he entered the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), where he underwent a medical examination, and where, according to protocol, all detainees are asked if they have any injuries and about their health status.
If the doctor sees wounds or complaints of pain, he will not admit the detainee to prison and will send him to a hospital to be examined by another doctor and released.
Had the violent acts occurred against a subject in a fragile condition like El Mayo, 76 years old, they would undoubtedly have left visible marks and evident pain.
And the fourth time was on July 26, when he was presented before Judge Kathleen Cardone. At that hearing, in which he had a translator, he pleaded not guilty to the charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, but neither he nor his lawyer mentioned the alleged kidnapping and physical violence to the judge. According to reports published by various media, El Mayo was presented in a highly dangerous orange uniform, in a wheelchair.
Sources familiar with these proceedings indicated that, while it is true that the judge at the first hearing had told them that this was not the time, due to the media coverage and impact that this would have caused, El Mayo and his lawyer would have made this clear from that first hearing.
According to documents from the Federal Court of the Western District of Texas, on July 26 Zambada García signed a document in which he waived his right to a preliminary hearing and a hearing to set bail, in which the judge was to evaluate the evidence against him and determine whether or not to proceed. “I am informed that if I waive my right to a hearing to set bail, I will remain detained without bail until I am brought to trial,” El Mayo signed..
We will have to wait to see what testimony or evidence the defense of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel presents regarding his statements, and whether it supports the version given about the alleged presence of American officials in Mexican territory when he fell into the trap set by Los Chapitos.
The testimony of Joaquin Guzman Junior
If these alleged events were to be decided in a United States court, Joaquín Guzmán Júnior would have to be called to testify about how El Mayo ended up on the plane that took him to the United States. They say that the law was not broken and Joaquín would have to say under oath what really happened.
Those who were involved in the planning of the operation say that they were considering different ways for Los Chapitos to trap El Mayo. But many were discarded.
One, for example, was that they would set a trap and that the Mexican government would participate in the capture, which was ruled out because they were certain that the Mexican government would leak the information to El Mayo, and he would never have trusted them to attend a meeting again.
That day, in the United States it was known that Joaquín Guzmán Júnior was the decoy for the trap to take El Mayo to the United States, but they were not sure that it would be successful until the plane landed. Some officials in that country They were really surprised.
Joaquín Guzmán Júnior acted voluntarily and took the steps to bring El Mayo before the United States justice system, in order to obtain benefits in the legal proceedings against him and his brother Ovidio Guzmán. And those most interested in his testimony on exactly how the events occurred are the North American authorities.
For his part, Mayo Zambada himself for some years through his son Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias Vicentillo, had had contacts with agents of the anti-drug agency DEA with whom he had been speaking with the plan of collaborating in the capture of other drug traffickers as he and his partner El Chapo Guzmán had done in the past, facts revealed by Vicentillo himself in his diary published in my book “El Traidor.”
In the past, other members of the Sinaloa Cartel have put forward various arguments to disprove their detention before US courts, when they were presented under arrest.
For example, Vicentillo’s defense attorneys, after he was extradited to the United States in 2011, argued during his legal proceedings in the Northern District Court of Illinois in Chicago that he could not be tried in the United States because, through negotiations with the anti-drug agency DEA, he had “public authority” to engage in drug trafficking. In other words, he had permission to do so.
The matter never had to be settled and proven in court because Vicentillo pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the United States government in exchange for a lenient sentence.
Jesús Beltrán, nicknamed El Trébol, member of the Sinaloa Cartel, brother-in-law of Alfredo Guzmán, leader of Los Chapitos, after weeks of being extradited to the United States, argued before the Federal Court of the Northern District in Chicago, that when he was detained in Mexico he had been tortured by Mexican authorities in the presence of DEA agents. The judge gave him the opportunity to present evidence. In the end, his argument could not be proven before the judge, he went to trial and was later sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.
Zambada García’s next hearing is on August 1 in Texas, and Joaquín Guzmán Júnior’s is on July 30 in Chicago.
Keep reading:
- Joaquín Guzmán López reportedly told “El Mayo” Zambada that they would go see some land before handing it over to the US.
- DEA arrests drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in Texas
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