The reclusive drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was well-known for staying out of the general public eye, ruling a multibillion-dollar narcotics trafficking empire from distant mountain hideouts and chatting with the press simply as soon as over the course of his decades-long prison profession.
However on Saturday, Zambada thrust himself into the highlight, issuing a outstanding assertion from jail in the USA, the place he’s being detained after an alleged betrayal by one other cartel trafficker looking for to chop a take care of authorities.
In a two-page doc in English despatched to The Occasions by his legal professional, Frank Perez, the Sinaloa cartel chief mentioned he was kidnapped by the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, flown to a small airport close to El Paso and handed over to authorities. He claimed {that a} distinguished politician in Sinaloa was killed within the course of.
Zambada, 76, the cartel’s co-founder, was lengthy believed to have police, troopers and political leaders in his pocket. However the brand new assertion consists of unprecedented admissions of these ties. He described how a state police official served as his private bodyguard and mentioned he had agreed to depart his hideout on the request of 38-year-old Joaquín Guzmán López to “assist resolve variations” between two feuding politicians.
These politicians, he mentioned, have been Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya and Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda, a former mayor of the state capital, Culiacán.
Zambada mentioned Cuén Ojeda was shot lifeless on the assembly. That’s a unique model of occasions than one shared by Sinaloa regulation enforcement authorities, who mentioned they believed Cuén Ojeda had been killed in an tried carjacking.
“I’m conscious that the official model being advised by Sinaloa state authorities is that Héctor Cuen was shot within the night of July twenty fifth at a gasoline station by two males on a bike who needed to rob his pick-up truck,” Zambada mentioned. “That’s not what occurred. He was killed on the identical time, and in the identical place, the place I used to be kidnapped.”
Perez mentioned he launched Zambada’s assertion “to set the file straight and counter the false narratives.”
Zambada mentioned the 2 Sinaloa politicians have been locked in a dispute “over who ought to lead” the Autonomous College of Sinaloa, the place Cuén Ojeda, a onetime candidate for governor, had as soon as been the rector.
At a information convention Saturday, Rocha forcefully denied any information of the assembly described by Zambada, saying he was not within the state on the day it allegedly occurred. “We have now not been complicit with anybody,” he mentioned.
Zambada has pleaded not responsible to federal costs in El Paso. The Justice Division is anticipated to switch his case to Brooklyn, N.Y., the place he additionally faces costs, to the identical courtroom that hosted the trial of El Chapo, his longtime associate who’s serving a life sentence within the U.S. after a 2019 conviction.
El Chapo’s son, Guzmán López, has pleaded not responsible to federal costs in Chicago, the place he and his youthful brother Ovidio are accused of main a cartel faction, Los Chapitos, identified for manufacturing and exporting illicit fentanyl. Their lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Saturday and has beforehand denied that the elder Guzmán López sibling had struck a deal to cooperate with U.S. authorities.
In his assertion, Zambada mentioned he arrived early for a gathering scheduled for 11 a.m. at a ranch and occasion middle known as Huertos del Pedregal, simply outdoors Culiacán. He mentioned he additionally anticipated to see Iván Guzmán Salazar, an older half-brother of Guzmán López who stays a fugitive in Mexico, needed for co-leading Los Chapitos.
“I noticed a lot of armed males carrying inexperienced army uniforms who I assumed have been gunmen for Joaquín Guzmán and his brothers,” Zambada mentioned.
Zambada mentioned he introduced his personal bodyguards, together with José Rosario Heras López, a commander within the State Judicial Police of Sinaloa, and Rodolfo Chaidez, whom he described as “a longtime member of my safety staff.”
“Whereas strolling towards the assembly space, I noticed Héctor Cuen and one among his aides. I greeted them briefly earlier than continuing inside to a room that had a desk stuffed with fruit,” Zambada mentioned. “I noticed Joaquín Guzmán Lopez, whom I’ve identified since he was a younger boy, and he gestured for me to observe him. Trusting the character of the assembly and the folks concerned, I adopted with out hesitation. I used to be led into one other room which was darkish.”
Zambada continued: “As quickly as I set foot inside that room, I used to be ambushed. A gaggle of males assaulted me, knocked me to the bottom, and positioned a dark-colored hood over my head. They tied me up and handcuffed me, then compelled me into the mattress of a pickup truck.”
Zambada mentioned he was “subjected to bodily abuse, leading to important accidents to my again, knee and wrists,” and pushed to a touchdown strip “about 20 or 25 minutes away, the place I used to be compelled onto a personal aircraft.”
He mentioned that after on board the airplane, Guzmán López eliminated the hood and “sure me with zip ties to the seat.”
Images taken by U.S. information media contained in the aircraft after it landed confirmed a bag from the Mexican gasoline station chain Oxxo containing zip ties, together with cookies and snacks.
Zambada mentioned the 2 bodyguards who have been with him, together with the state police official, have been lacking for the reason that ambush. The assertion mentioned Cuén Ojeda was killed on the scene and that his physique was taken away.
“The notion that I surrendered or cooperated voluntarily is totally and unequivocally false,” Zambada mentioned. “I used to be delivered to this nation forcibly and underneath duress, with out my consent and towards my will.”
Mexican officers have mentioned the Guzmán López brothers reached an settlement to cooperate with U.S. authorities in hopes of receiving leniency of their circumstances, which may carry lengthy jail sentences.
A spokesperson for the Division of Justice didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Saturday morning.
Zambada, ought to he select to cooperate with U.S. authorities, may spill greater than 40 years of secrets and techniques about whom he and his cartel have corrupted in Mexico. Twice throughout prison trials in the USA, allegations have surfaced that the Sinaloa cartel made funds to an early and unsuccessful presidential marketing campaign by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2006. The president, who was elected when he ran once more in 2018, has vehemently denied any hyperlinks to drug traffickers.
With a president-elect from his personal get together, Claudia Sheinbaum, poised to exchange him in October, López Obrador known as this week for Zambada and Guzmán López to disclose no matter they could find out about political corruption in Mexico to U.S. investigators.
“If they will inform how a lot help was given to authorities, if they will inform on who was defending them, all of that can assist rather a lot, and likewise their agreements with the U.S. businesses. … Make all of it clear. That may assist rather a lot,” the president mentioned at a information convention.
López Obrador and Sheinbaum have been scheduled to look Saturday in Sinaloa on the opening of a hospital. The president and president-elect are from the identical political get together as Rocha, the Sinaloa governor.
State authorities in Sinaloa have mentioned Cuén Ojeda was declared lifeless by medical doctors at a personal clinic in central Culiacán on the evening of July 25. An post-mortem confirmed he died from the influence of 4 bullets, one among which hit a significant artery on his proper leg.
Sinaloa Atty. Gen. Sara Bruna Quiñonez Estrada mentioned in a press release final week that police are investigating “all attainable causes” in Cuén Ojeda’s case.
“The State Lawyer Normal’s Workplace doesn’t rule out any line of investigation … and continues to hold out all related investigative acts to make clear the information and produce these accountable to justice,” Bruna mentioned.
Zambada known as for “the reality to come back out” concerning the occasions of July 25.
“I name on the governments of Mexico and the USA to be clear and supply the reality about my abduction to the USA and concerning the deaths of Héctor Cuen, Rosario Heras, Rodolfo Chaidez, and anybody else who could have misplaced their life that day,” he mentioned. “I additionally name on the folks of Sinaloa to make use of restraint and keep peace in our state. Nothing may be solved by violence. We have now been down that street earlier than, and everybody loses.”
Sinaloa authorities mentioned the person who introduced Cuén Ojeda to the Culiacán clinic reported that the taking pictures had occurred in a failed carjacking try at a gasoline station.
The witness reportedly mentioned a gasoline station attendant was fueling Cuén Ojeda’s truck when two males on a bike ordered him out of the automobile. After Cuén Ojeda refused to conform, officers mentioned, the boys shot him and sped off.
Two gasoline station workers interviewed by journalists for the native information website Ríodoce mentioned that they didn’t see a bike strategy the automobile or see an altercation.
Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, launched a press release Friday that mentioned Guzmán López surrendered to U.S. authorities voluntarily and that “the proof for the time being signifies El Mayo was introduced towards his will.”
Salazar mentioned no U.S. sources have been used within the “rendition” of Zambada: “It was not our aircraft, not our pilot, and never our folks.”
Salazar mentioned U.S. authorities didn’t obtain a flight plan for the aircraft prematurely, and that the aircraft took off someplace in Sinaloa, contradicting earlier statements from Mexican officers that mentioned the craft disembarked from Hermosillo within the neighboring state of Sonora.
A distinguished determine in Sinaloa, the place his management of the Autonomous College of Sinaloa earned him the affectionate nickname “El Maestro,” Cuén Ojeda pivoted from an educational profession to politics in 2010, later forming his personal get together. He additionally ran for Senate and served as state secretary of well being till 2022.
An announcement launched by Cuén Ojeda’s household remembered “his tireless dedication to work, his hand at all times outstretched to assist others and the massive coronary heart that he at all times had open to these round him.”
The household’s assertion made “a agency and respectful name” for the case to be investigated “freed from any hypothesis to supply the justice that his work and legacy have left us in his time on this life and that he rightly deserves.”
Former federal prosecutors have advised The Occasions that even when it’s true that Zambada was kidnapped and different crimes occurred as he was delivered to the USA, it’s unlikely that the fees towards him might be dismissed on account of a violation of Mexico’s extradition treaty or for different procedural causes.
In 2019, the Mexican authorities compelled the return of Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, a former protection secretary who had been arrested that yr on narco-corruption costs by the Drug Enforcement Administration whereas touring to the U.S. together with his household.
López Obrador was livid concerning the common’s arrest, arguing that the nation’s sovereignty had been violated. The Justice Division finally dropped all costs and allowed Cienfuegos to return house. Mexican authorities later launched proof from the case and maintained the overall was harmless.
There may be some proof to help Zambada’s claims that he was in league with corrupt Mexican officers. Throughout the trial of El Chapo in Brooklyn in 2019, Zambada’s eldest son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, testified that the cartel paid an estimated $1 million per 30 days in “salaries” to officers in any respect ranges of presidency. Zambada Niebla testified {that a} commander of the state judicial police, the company his father talked about in his assertion Saturday, would obtain round $50,000 per 30 days.
State police commanders got the nickname “Yankee,” Zambada Niebla testified, and his father appreciated to hand-deliver the bribes.
“My dad is the form of one who appreciated to see the Yankees or commanders personally,” he mentioned.
Zambada Niebla additionally detailed funds on his father’s behalf to a army common, federal police officers, and brokers from the Mexican legal professional common’s workplace tasked with investigating organized crime.
Tim Sloan, former head of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Mexico, famous that López Obrador was as soon as photographed shaking arms with El Chapo’s mom in Sinaloa, a gesture that did little to quiet hypothesis concerning the president’s sympathies.
Pushing to return Zambada, Sloan mentioned, can be untenable: “It might be actually unhealthy politically for Mexico to exit on a limb for this man who has been one among America’s most needed for many years.”
Hamilton reported from San Francisco and Linthicum from Mexico Metropolis. Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico Metropolis contributed to this report.
