Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada has eluded the reach of U.S. enforcement for decades as the top leader and co-founder of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel. Under his watch the criminal organization evolved into the world’s biggest manufacturer and smuggler of illicit fentanyl pills and other drugs into the U.S. The 76-year-old Zambada long ran the cartel in partnership with the flashier and better-known kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. Guzmán is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. Zambada and one of Guzmán’s sons were arrested in Texas on Thursday after they arrived on a private plane.
