U.S. ambassador confirms Mexican drug lord Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada was brought to US against his will

FILE - U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar speaks during a joint news conference at the Michoacan state governor's office in Morelia, Mexico, June 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Armando Solis, File)

MEXICO CITY -

The U.S. ambassador to Mexico confirmed Friday that drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada was brought to the United States against his will when he arrived in Texas in July on a plane along with fellow drug lord Joaquin Guzman Lopez.

Zambada's attorney had earlier claimed the longtime chief of the Sinaloa cartel had been kidnapped. But officials had not confirmed that and Zambada's age and apparent ill-health had led some to speculate he turned himself in.

U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar on Friday said "the evidence we saw ... is that they had brought El Mayo Zambada against his will."

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"This was an operation between cartels, where one turned the other one in," Salazar said. Zambada's faction of the Sinaloa cartel has been engaged in fierce fighting with another faction, led by the sons of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Guzman Lopez is the half-brother of the factional leaders.

Salazar said no U.S. personnel, resources or aircraft were involved in the flight on which Guzman Lopez turned himself in, and that U.S. officials were "surprised" when the two showed up at an airport outside El Paso, Texas on July 25.

Frank Perez, Zambada's attorney, said in a statement in July that "my client neither surrendered nor negotiated any terms with the U.S. government."

"Joaquin Guzman Lopez forcibly kidnapped my client," Perez wrote. "He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquin. His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head."

Perez went on to say that Zambada, 76, was thrown in the back of a pickup truck, forced onto a plane and tied to the seat by Guzman Lopez.

In early August, Zambada made his second appearance in federal court in Texas after being taken into U.S. custody the week before.

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Guzman Lopez had apparently long been in negotiations with U.S. authorities about possibly turning himself in. Guzman Lopez, 38, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in federal court in Chicago.

But U.S. officials said they had almost no warning when Guzman Lopez's plane landed at an airport near El Paso. Both men were arrested and remain jailed. They are charged in the U.S. with various drug crimes.

Salazar said the plane had taken off from Sinaloa -- the Pacific coast state where the cartel is headquartered -- and had filed no flight plan. He stressed the pilot wasn't American, nor was the plane.

The implication is that Guzman Lopez intended to turn himself in, and brought Zambada with him to procure more favourable treatment, but his motives remain unclear.

Zambada was thought to be more involved in day-to-day operations of the cartel than his better-known and flashier boss, "El Chapo," who was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019.

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Zambada is charged in a number of U.S. cases, including in New York and California. Prosecutors brought a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as the "principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing enormous quantities of narcotics into the United States."

The capture of Zambada and Guzman Lopez -- and the idea that one cartel faction had turned in the leader of the other -- raised fears that the already divided cartel could descend into a spiral of violent infighting.

That prompted Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to take the unusual step of issuing a public appeal to drug cartels not to fight each other.