WASHINGTON — Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, cofounder of the Sinaloa drug cartel, claims he was kidnapped and is sitting in a U.S. federal prison cell in Texas because he trusted Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the "Los Chapitos," the sons of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, his cartel cofounder.
Zambada made the claim in a Saturday statement from U.S. federal detention sent to VOA and other news organizations by his lawyer, Frank Perez.
Zambada has pleaded not guilty to seven federal charges in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Most of the charges involve drug trafficking, use of firearms and homicide. Guzman Lopez, who surrendered to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI on July 25, has pleaded not guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago on narcotics, money-laundering and firearms charges.
"The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement on July 25, the night they landed in a private airplane at Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in the border area near El Paso, Texas.
"I did not turn myself in, and I did not come voluntarily to the United States. Nor did I have any agreement with either government. To the contrary, I was kidnapped and brought to the U.S. forcibly and against my will," Zambada wrote in the statement. Zambada is waiting to be moved to New York, where the Justice Department transferred the case.
Why Guzmán López would come to the U.S., reportedly voluntarily, and forcibly bring Zambada to with him is not known. Both men face years in prison in the United States.
DEA sources have said Guzman Lopez had been coordinating his surrender for some time.
"I was ambushed," Zambada wrote in his statement, recounting a meeting at the Huertos del Pedregal ranch on the outskirts of Culiacán, the Sinaloa state capital, to resolve differences between political leaders to which he said he had been invited. The political leaders were Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, who has denied being at the ranch and has distanced himself from knowing Zambada, and Héctor Melesio Cuen Ojeda, a former federal deputy, mayor of Culiacán and rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.
"A group of men assaulted me, knocked me to the ground, and placed a dark-colored hood over my head. They tied me up and handcuffed me, then forced me into the bed of a pickup truck."
Cuen Ojeda was killed that night allegedly in a robbery attempt, something Zambada disputes. "They killed him at the same time and in the same place where they kidnapped me," he wrote.
Zambada, until now untouchable, accuses Guzman Lopez of physical abuse. He said in his statement that Guzman Lopez hurt his back, knee and wrists as he forced him onto the private airplane.
Guzman Lopez "removed the hood from my head and bound me with zip ties to the seat," Zambada said, adding, "No one else was aboard the plane except Joaquin, the pilot, and myself."
The United States has stated that no resources from its government were used in this operation, according to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar.
"This was an operation between the cartels where one handed over the other," he said at an August 9 press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, without giving details.
The Justice Department has made clear both men will face justice as the Sinaloa cartel is being singled out as the largest distributor of synthetic drugs in the U.S.
"Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable" Garland said in his statement the night of the arrests.
Zambada has asked the governments of Mexico and the United States for transparency about the events.
