Mexico to Charge Cartel Leader for Surrendering Drug Lord to U.S.

An unusual twist has emerged in the saga surrounding the arrests of two Mexican drug lords who were taken into custody after landing in a U.S. plane this past July. The Mexican government has announced its intention to bring charges against Joaquín Guzmán López, but the motives behind these charges are quite unexpected.

Rather than citing Guzmán López’s leadership role in the Sinaloa drug cartel—an organization founded by his father, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán—the charges revolve around an alleged kidnapping. Mexican prosecutors accuse the younger Guzmán of coercing Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, an influential figure from a rival faction, onto the plane and flying him to an airport near El Paso, Texas.

The situation appears increasingly complicated, as Guzmán López may have been aiming to turn himself in to U.S. authorities. However, it’s suggested he brought Zambada along in an effort to enhance the likelihood of a favorable plea deal.

Federal prosecutors from Mexico have indicated that “an arrest warrant has been prepared” for Guzmán López concerning the kidnapping charge. Additionally, they have cited a very serious accusation under Mexico’s criminal code, labeling the act as treason. According to this legal provision, treason is committed “by those who illegally abduct a person in Mexico in order to hand them over to authorities of another country.”

This particular charge seems to stem from a previous abduction case involving a Mexican doctor implicated in the 1985 murder of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Kiki Camarena. Despite these serious allegations, the Mexican authorities have not mentioned the younger Guzmán’s connections to the Chapitos—”little Chapos”—a faction of the Sinaloa cartel consisting of El Chapo’s sons, who are responsible for smuggling large amounts of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, contributing to approximately 70,000 overdose deaths annually.

A striking detail came to light in the federal prosecutors’ statement regarding evidence presented by authorities in Sinaloa, which has since proven to be fabricated. It was revealed that state prosecutors were seemingly attempting to distance the governor, Rubén Rocha, from the murder of a local political figure, Hector Cuén, who was reportedly at a meeting used as a pretext for Zambada’s kidnapping. Zambada claimed he believed the governor would be present at the meeting, although Rocha asserted he was out of town that day.

In an effort to downplay reports surrounding this alleged meeting, prosecutors released a video depicting a shooting at a local gas station, claiming it was related to a botched robbery where Cuén was killed. However, they later acknowledged discrepancies between the number of gunshots heard in the video and the wounds on Cuén’s body.

Federal prosecutors have now explicitly stated that the gas station video “is unacceptable, nor does it have sufficient value as evidence to be taken into account.” This admission further complicates an already convoluted situation.

Zambada had expressed trust in Guzmán, who he believed had invited him to the meeting to help mediate the intense political rivalry between Cuén and Rocha. Zambada’s remarkable ability to evade capture for decades can be attributed to his highly sophisticated personal security arrangements. His decision to risk it all by attending this meeting implies he saw the engagement as legitimate and worthwhile.

The case has been a significant embarrassment for the Mexican government, which reportedly was unaware of the detentions of both drug lords on U.S. soil until after the fact. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has long viewed U.S. interventions in Mexico as an affront to national sovereignty and has consistently resisted confronting the country’s drug cartels. He has questioned the efficacy of U.S. policies targeting drug cartel leaders, raising the provocative question: “Why don’t they change that policy?”

Recent developments have also hinted at increased violence in Sinaloa, where authorities have reported at least ten murders believed to be tied to internal conflicts within the dominant drug smuggling cartel, illustrating the potential consequences stemming from the detainment of Zambada and Guzmán.

El Chapo himself, the founder of the Sinaloa cartel, is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on multiple charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering. Last year, he conveyed an “SOS” message to Mexico’s president, alleging that he is experiencing “psychological torment” during his imprisonment.