“El Mayo” Zambada: Large Quantities of Precursors Seized in Nuevo León and Sinaloa

The operation by Cofepris, local authorities and elements of the Navy lasted two days in Nuevo León and Sinaloa where they assured more than 120 tons of precursors and essential chemicals for the production of synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine, these were destined for clandestine laboratories operated by the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by the boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, and his son Ismael Zambada Sicairos, alias “El Mayito Flaco”.

According to information from federal sources, The insured chemical precursors have a value of 87 million pesos, and it is not the first time that federal security forces achieve seize chemicals and synthetic drugs in large volumes in Nuevo León, a fact that is becoming more and more recurrent.

It should be remembered that in July 2023, the Attorney General’s Office and the Civil Force of Nuevo León dismantled a laboratory for the production of methamphetamines, an event that was repeated in the municipality of Doctor Gonzáles in February 2024, when the FGR seizure of methamphetamine, precursors and weapons.

In the federal Security cabinet they detected that the Sinaloa Cartel moved part of the laboratories to produce synthetic drugs to Nuevo León, in the face of surveillance by the Navy and the Army in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora.

So everything seems to indicate that Nuevo León, governed by the Emecista Samuel García Sepúlveda, became a place of interest for the installation of “drug laboratories” for criminal organizations, due to its industrial and logistical nature, suitable for both the supply of chemical substances and the placement of finished product in the United States.

According to sources from the security cabinet, it is likely that the organizations are looking for new production areas outside the eye of the hurricane that Sinaloa and Sonora have become in terms of the production of synthetic drugs, where The Armed Forces have carried out the constant dismantling of hundreds of clandestine laboratories, such is the case of the mega laboratory secured by the Secretary of the Navy in February of this year, with the production capacity of up to 40 tons of methamphetamine per month, which without a doubt represented a million-dollar blow to the finances of the Sinaloa Cartel.

In addition to the above, according to the sources consulted, the strong disputes between the factions led by Aureliano Guzmán Loera, alias “El Guano” and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, “El Chapito”, against those led by “Los Mayos”, which has resulted in a high rate of crime and homicides in the states of Sinaloa, Durango and Sonora, all in order to gain control of the trafficking routes for chemical precursors, fentanyl, and methamphetamine to the neighboring country to the north.

For the Mexican authorities, everything seems to indicate that it is becoming increasingly important. The Zambada criminal network in the criminal market for synthetic drugs, positioning itself as one of the main trafficking networks for these narcotics globally, reaching markets in the United States, Europe, and Australia mainly, where the seizure of methamphetamines is becoming more frequent.