2 Famous Mexican Sinaloa Cartel Leaders Are Cruel Including 'El Chapo' Men Arrested In Texas

Illustration-(Photo: DOK ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The leader of Mexico's notorious Sinaloa cartel, along with son Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was arrested by the FBI on Thursday. The Justice Department confirmed that Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez were arrested in El Paso, Texas. A senior official familiar with the arrest told CBS News that Zambada was detained by the FBI without incidents along the US border. Zambada and "El Chapo" co-founded the cartel. "The Justice department has detained two suspects in the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world's most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations," Attorney Generalpresent Garland said in a statement quoted by CBS News, Friday, July 26. Zambada was indicted in Brooklyn in February for fentanyl trading among other charges, and the two men face many charges in the US for leading a cartel criminal operation, including a deadly manufacturing network and fentanyl trading. "Garcia and Guzman are suspected of overseeing the tens of thousands of pounds of drug trafficking to the United States, along with related violence," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. Zambada was arrested after being a US fugitive for years. The State Department in 2016 had offered $5 million in gifts for information leading to his arrest, and the DEA's kinging profile said the prize reached $115 million. DEA administrator Anne Milgram said Zambada's arrest "incurred the heart of the cartel responsible for most drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, which killed Americans from coast to beach." The sinoa Cartel based in fact, which has been operating since the 1980s, is one of Mexico's most powerful and cruel criminal organizations. Zambada founded a joint cartel with "El Chapo", who was arrested in 2016 and is currently serving a maximum-security prison sentence in the US after being found guilty of drug trafficking and money laundering. Zambada took over the cartel after "El Chapo" was arrested. Milgram said Lopez and several of his brothers had also led the cartel since their father's arrest. Lopez is one of El Chapo's 12 children, four of whom were nicknamed "Los Chapitos" because they were accused of being heavily involved in Sinaloa's operations. Lopez was first indicted on federal drug trafficking charges in 2018 and has been indicted many times since then.

In April 2023, three other Chapitos were among the 28 suspected members and partners of Sinaloa accused of bailing out transnational fentanyl trading operations to US Attorney General Total Garland and Justice Department officials blamed the defendants for the loss of hundreds of thousands of Americans from fentanyl.