Mexico Waits For Details From The United States Regarding Aviators Carrying El Mayo And El Chapo's Son

JAKARTA - Mexico's Attorney General's Office said on Thursday it had not received detailed information from US authorities about flights carrying two well-known drug dealers to the US last month, amid rising tensions between the two countries over the arrests.

In a statement, the office said it was asking for details from the US Department of Justice on the flight, including detailed records of its pilots, aircraft and authorization of immigration and related customs.

Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, was detained on July 25 at an airfield in New Mexico along with one of the sons of fellow founder of the imprisoned Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Zambada, through his lawyer, said he was arrested out of his will and Mexico was investigating the incidents surrounding the arrest to determine whether the betrayal was carried out through the forced kidnapping of a Mexican citizen and their surrender to US authorities.

The statement said the US had allowed Mexican authorities to investigate airfields in New Mexico, but that did not help answer the questions they still had.

Earlier, Mexican prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they were investigating the disappearance of two bodyguards on the same day as dramatic arrests of El Mayo and Joaquin Guzman Lopez.

In a letter shared by his lawyer, Zambada said he had been accompanied to a meeting with Guzman's son by Jose Heras, the chief justice police officer of Sinaloa State and Rodolfo Chaidez, an "old member" of his security team.

Sinaloa State Prosecutor Sara Quinonez said Heras and Chaidez, former state investigative agents, had been reported missing by their families.

He said Heras had been suspended from his post and if found alive, he would be arrested. Heras has been on vacation since July 15 and his family said he would visit a relative on the day he disappeared, he said.

Meanwhile, a source from the prosecutor's office told Reuters Chaidez had been an active member of security forces for several years, working on an investigation, but did not share further details.

Separately, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he did not know how Zambada was arrested on July 25 and had reprimanded the US Government for its lack of transparency.

President Lopez Obrador urged prosecutors to investigate the full facts of the arrest, which is seen as one of the biggest punches to Mexican drug trafficking in recent years.

On the other hand, the US Embassy said flights carrying Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez out of Mexico to the airport near El Paso, Texas, were operating without US resources and its flight plans were not shared with US authorities.

Both Zambada and Guzman Lopez pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in US courts.