Daily Times

With bounties of several million dollars offered for their capture, Mexican drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of the infamous “El Chapo”, were at the top of the most wanted list for US authorities. The two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel were arrested on Thursday after landing in Texas on a private plane. But as the cartel is one of the most powerful organised crime groups in Mexico, the power vacuum resulting from their arrests could trigger new bouts of violence.

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and the son of his ex-partner, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, were arrested on Thursday in El Paso, Texas, in a major coup for US authorities that may also reshape the Mexican criminal landscape.

Zambada is one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico’s history and co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo, who was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.

Both Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo, face multiple charges in the US for funneling huge quantities of drugs to US streets, including fentanyl, which has surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

Zambada, who is believed to be in his 70s, and Guzman Lopez, who is in his 30s, were detained after landing in a private plane in the El Paso area, two US officials told Reuters.

Guzman Lopez is one of four sons of El Chapo – known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos – who inherited their father’s faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. His brother, Ovidio Guzman, was arrested last year and extradited to the United States.

In recent years, the Sinaloa Cartel has become the biggest target for US authorities, who have accused the crime syndicate of being the largest supplier of fentanyl to the United States.

Zambada and Guzman Lopez face multiple charges in the US “for heading the Cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.