"El Chapo"
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One of the most nefarious figures in Mexico is now being detained in the United States. The Sinaloa Cartel leader says he was taken against his will.
As reported by Raw Story, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a reported high-ranking shotcaller for the crime syndicate was brought to U.S. soil last week. Since then, there has been much speculation about his extradition involving rumors he is cooperating with the government and that he turned himself in.
But he is denying those allegations via his lawyer. “I did not turn myself in, and I did not come voluntarily to the United States,” read the statement. “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 would go on to allude to the reports that El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzmán, was also present at the sting. Guzmán apparently asked Zambada to follow him into a dark room to which he obliged.
“Trusting the nature of the meeting and the people involved, I followed without hesitation,” Ismeal says. “As soon as I set foot inside of that room, I was ambushed. A group of men assaulted me, knocked me to the ground, and placed a dark-colored hood over my head.” He then says he was handcuffed and placed in an unidentified vehicle.
Later in the statement, he went on to double down that he is not working with the United States government.
“The notion that I surrendered or cooperated voluntarily is completely and unequivocally false. I was brought to this country forcibly and under duress, without my consent and against my will.”
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is expected to be transferred from Texas to New York this week. Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is currently serving a life sentence for drug trafficking. The Sinaloa Cartel is said to be one of the most powerful and violent criminal operations in the world.
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Days after it was reported that U.S. authorities apprehended two of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel top bosses (Joaquín Guzmán López and Ismael Zambada García), details about the arrest are coming to light, and they are simply raising more questions than answers.
According to the New York Times, it seems like El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, actually kidnapped and forced his underling Ismael Zambada García to accompany him on the ill-fated (for them) flight from Mexico to Texas, where authorities were waiting for them to touch down before putting both men into custody. Why López would take such action is the million dollar question, especially since Garcia had been on the run for quite some time.
Still, López did what he did and apparently he tricked Garcia into a meeting that ended up being his last moments in Mexico.
The New York Times reports:
Mr. Zambada García, one of his country’s most wanted men, had come down from a hide-out in the mountains last week and was ambushed in the Mexican city of Culiacán at what he thought would be a friendly meeting with Mr. Guzmán López, according to three federal law enforcement officials who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive details of the case. Mr. Guzmán López then forcibly flew Mr. Zambada García in a Beechcraft King Air turboprop across the border, where he was apprehended by U.S. federal agents, the officials said.
That version of events echoed one that was recently offered by Mr. Zambada García’s lawyer, who told The New York Times and other news outlets that his client had not been tricked into boarding the plane, but in fact had been abducted. Mr. Guzmán López, the lawyer said, waylaid Mr. Zambada García with a group of henchmen who handcuffed him, stuck a bag over his head and muscled him into a car and then on to the plane, where he remained bound throughout the flight.
Did El Chapo’s son have a personal grudge with Lopez or something? Though he had apparently been negotiating his own surrender to U.S. authorities for quite some time, why would he take down one of his top bosses with him? Would such a move guarantee him a lighter prison sentence? And did authorities know that Garcia would be brought against his will?
Though Garcia’s lawyer says that his client never intended on surrendering himself to authorities, what’s done is done and that particular defense won’t be leading to him regaining his freedom anytime soon.
Legal experts say that even if Mr. Zambada García arrived in the United States under physical duress, it may have no effect on the criminal charges he is facing. There is longstanding legal precedent allowing prosecutors to pursue cases against defendants who were brought to the United States against their will, the experts said.
“U.S. law is quite clear that even kidnappings that violate extradition treaties don’t provide a basis for relief for the defendant,” said Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Columbia Law School.
Still, it seems like that’s the only hand Garcia has to play not only in a court of law, but also in a court of public opinion.
El Chapo must be in his prison cell somewhere just shaking his head.
What do y’all think about this latest twist in this Narcos novela? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Just when it seemed like things were quieting down on the drug front in Mexico, U.S. authorities pulled off quite the big haul when they took into custody two of the biggest names in the drug cartel game.
According to ABC News, Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez (the son of “El Chapo” Guzman), were officially placed under arrest Thursday (July 25), in El Paso, Texas. The Department of Justice announced the news and said that both men would be charged for their senior roles in the drug trafficking enterprise that turned certain parts of Mexico into a war zone.
With Sinaloa cartel OG Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman already serving a life sentence for his role in the cartel, this is a pretty huge haul for the Department of Justice. FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke on the matter and acknowledged as much.
ABC News reports:
“Today, the FBI and DEA arrested two alleged cartel leaders who have eluded law enforcement for decades. Ismael Mario ‘El Mayo’ Zambada García and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of El Chapo, will now face justice in the United States,” Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.
“Garcia and Guzman have allegedly overseen the trafficking of tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the U.S. along with related violence. These arrests are an example of the FBI’s and our partners commitment to dismantling violent transnational criminal organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel,” Wray said.
The circumstances behind Zambada and Guzman Lopez being taken into custody were not immediately clear as of Thursday evening, however, the men were arrested in an operation that ended on U.S. soil.
“El Mayo” thought he was headed to inspect a clandestine Mexican airfield, of which the Sinaloa cartel has many in the country. Instead, according to a Homeland Security Investigations official, a senior ranking member of the cartel tricked him and flew him to El Paso instead.
Upon landing on the tarmac, agents from HSI, along with the FBI arrested “El Mayo” and Guzman.
Clever trap. Sounds like Netflix might turn this into a season of Narcos with that last maneuver alone.
Having planned this operation for months, you can only imagine how much man power went into pulling this off and how many nerves were on edge while it was being executed.
While we’re sure they will be replaced by other members of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, this is still a huge haul for the DOJ who’ve been doing everything they can to stop the flow of drugs from Mexico into the United States.
Don’t be surprised if the streets get dry for a while. Just sayin’.
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The former president of Honduras was convicted in a federal court of trafficking tons of cocaine into the United States and aiding local cartels.
On Friday (March 8), a Federal District jury in New York City found former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine, illegally using and carrying machine guns, and possessing machine guns as part of a “cocaine-importation conspiracy.” Also known as JOH, the 55-year-old Hernández was charged with smuggling over 500 tons of cocaine into the United States from Colombia and Venezuela via Honduras since 2004, before his ascension to the presidency. “He paved a cocaine super-highway to the United States,” said federal prosecutors during the trial, stating that he worked with the infamous Sinaloa drug cartel headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and enriched himself as the country sank into high levels of corruption and poverty.
Hernández had portrayed himself as a “law and order” candidate with the right-wing Honduras National Party in 2013 on his way to his first term as president. His vows to crack down on traffickers and crime received praise from the Trump administration, but prosecutors aided by a slew of witnesses testified about how much he was allied with the cartels in the country as well as Mexico and other countries who paid him millions. The disgraced politician once said he’d “stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” according to witnesses, “and they won’t even notice.” It’s the first such prosecution of a foreign politician since the prosecutions of former Panamanian General Manuel Noriega in 1992 and Guatemala’s Alfonso Portillo in 2014 and comes three years after the conviction of his brother, Juan Antonio on similar charges.
Witnesses for the prosecution included Devis Leonel Rivera, head of the powerful Los Cachiros cartel; Fabio Lobo, the son of former president Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014) and Alexander Ardon, a member of Hernández’s former party. Rivera, who admitted to being involved in 78 murders including that of two American journalists, testified that he personally bribed Hernandez with $250,000. “They should have tried to catch us,” he said on the stand, saying that instead “they allied with us.”Outside of the courthouse, many celebrated the verdict with signs in Spanish reading, “No clemency for narcopolitics.” Hernández is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26 and faces life in prison.
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You know things are bad out on these streets when even Mexican drug cartels are banning the production of fentanyl under the penalty of death.
Sounds like an oxymoron of sorts but according to the Wall Street Journal, that’s exactly what’s going on south of the border. El Chapo’s old Sinaloa Cartel is prohibiting the production and trafficking of fentanyl due to pressure from U.S. law enforcement. Apparently every other drug is fair game, though. The new order was handed down by El Chapo’s four sons (better known as the “Chapitos”) who have taken the reigns of the deadly cartel in place of their locked-down daddy.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The directive from the most powerful faction within the criminal group aims to evade pressure from U.S. law enforcement, operatives say, though some U.S. officials are skeptical that the ban will endure.
The Biden administration is pushing the Mexican government to take more aggressive steps to dismantle the organization, considered by the U.S. to be the top fentanyl trafficking group. U.S. deaths from fentanyl have become an American political issue, with some Republicans, including lawmakers and others running for president, advocating to send the U.S. military into Mexico to fight criminal groups trafficking fentanyl.
For the many people in this northwestern Mexican region who make a living producing and smuggling an opioid that has killed tens of thousands of Americans, the message was clear: stop or die. In June, when the shift away from fentanyl began, three bodies covered with blue pills of the drug appeared on the outskirts of Culiacán.
Opioid and fentanyl was simply killing off too many people in communities that Republicans and company care about. Where was this kind of concern when the crack epidemic hit our neighborhoods like a tidal wave? Just sayin’.
Being that fentanyl production is about to drop like cryptocurrency stock, authorities expect the export of others drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine and heroine to rise in order to make up for the financial loss these cartels will suffer under their new directive. Regardless of how light their pockets will get, no one wants to cross the Chapitos as they’ve taken to spreading their message through banners being hung on billboards and overpasses in Mexico.
“In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transport or any kind of business involving the substance known as fentanyl, including the sale of chemical products for its elaboration, is permanently banned,” the banners read, according to WSJ. “You have been warned. Sincerely yours, the Chapitos.”
Message received and noted.
What do y’all think of the Sinaloa Cartel deciding to fall back from their fentanyl production under the threat from U.S. authorities? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Looks like Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s son really is following in his father’s footsteps as Ovidio Guzman Lopez has just been extradited from Mexico to the U.S. to face justice in a court of law like his daddy did a few years ago.
According to Raw Story,
Source: press handout / Mexico
(The Mouse) was taken to the U.S. this past Friday (September 15) to face narcotics and drug trafficking charges linked to the explosive fentanyl crisis that’s led to numerous deaths over the past few years. Don’t expect any goons to travel to the U.S. and force authorities to release “El Raton” like they did in Mexico a few years back though. U.S. don’t play that ish.
Raw Story reports:
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Garland hailed the extradition as “the most recent step in the Justice Department’s effort to attack every aspect of the cartel’s operations.”
“The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable those responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic that has devastated too many communities across the country.”
The White House also lauded the extradition as part of “ongoing cooperation” with Mexico, a sign the administration of President Joe Biden is eager to get past the friction with Mexico over antinarcotics efforts.
“We thank our Mexican counterparts for their partnership in working to safeguard our peoples from violent criminals,” said the statement by Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, released by the White House.
The news comes just after El Chapo’s wife was released after doing her own baby bid for partaking in her hubby’s business.
While Lopez will be facing drug trafficking charges in the U.S., the man also has a reputation for being extremely violent and calling for the murders of rivals, informants and even a popular Mexican singer who refused to sing at his wedding. Man, that’s just cold. Y’all know this man’s going to have the book thrown at him.
While we’re almost sure Lopez will be convicted and sentenced to life in prison like his father, we’re just wondering if they’ll actually end up in the same prison when it’s all said and done. Just sayin.’
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After serving two years of a three-year prison term, the wife of notorious Mexican drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was released from prison Wednesday (Sept. 13).
According to Raw Story, Emma Coronel Aispuro was given her freedom papers after doing a baby bid for drug trafficking and money laundering, which she was convicted for back in 2021. The 34-year-old former beauty had been married to 66-year-old El Chapo since she was a teenager. It was only a matter of time before she herself got caught up in the life of organized crime that he ruled with an iron fist south of the border.
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Whether or not she was a willing participant or forced into that life is anyone’s guess, but her role ultimately landed her in prison alongside her infamous hubby.
Raw Story reports:
During her trial, prosecutors and her defense lawyers said Coronel was not involved in the core business of Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel, which shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs into the United States.
“The defendant’s actual role was a minimal one,” prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi said.
“The defendant was not a leader, organizer, boss or other type of manager,” Nardozzi said. “Rather she was a cog in a very large wheel of a criminal organization.”
Coronel, who helped facilitate Guzman’s spectacular 2015 escape from a Mexican prison, regularly attended her husband’s trial in New York.
A dual US-Mexican citizen, Coronel was able to move in and out of the United States freely until she was arrested at Dulles International Airport outside Washington in February 2021.
Well, at least she can now go back to living the lavish life paid for by drug money.
El Chapo meanwhile isn’t seeing the light of day for the rest of his life as he’s been sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole for his deadly reign as the drug kingpin of Mexico. We’re just wondering if he’s given his wife his blessing to move on with her life. We’re sure there’s plenty of men willing to wife up the former beauty queen who’s sitting on millions with nothing to do on Saturday nights.
Won’t be surprised if Future shoots his shot at some point. Just sayin’.
What do y’all think think of El Chapo’s wife being a free woman? Let us know in the comments section below.
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A top Mexican official who once helped his country tackle the growing problem of drug gangs has now been convicted of himself helping drug cartels move weight across south of the border.
Raw Story is reporting that on Tuesday (February 21), the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, Garcia Luna, was found guilty in a Brooklyn federal court of taking bribes from drug traffickers who he was supposed to be taking off the streets in exchange for protection and information on rivals and authorities. Prosecutors argued that Luna took millions of dollars in bribes from El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel from 2006-2012 when he was tasked to be taking down the now-infamous drug cartel. Luna now faces at least 20 years in prison for his transgression.
“Garcia Luna, who once stood at the pinnacle of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels,” said US prosecutor Breon Peace, welcoming the verdict.
A spokesperson for the current Mexican government, which has accused Garcia Luna of stealing more than $200 million of public funds and has demanded his extradition, said in a tweet that “justice has arrived.”
Prosecutors argued that Garcia Luna, who held high-ranking security positions in Mexico from 2001 until 2012, was the cartel’s “partner in crime.”
We hope Luna enjoyed that money while he could because we doubt anyone’s going to be trying to break him out of prison like his former employer, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Unfortunately for Luna, nine of the 26 people who testified against him were former drug traffickers from Mexico who cooperated with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of getting leniency in their own upcoming trials.
They included former several high-level cartel bosses, including Jesus “Rey” Zambada, Sergio Villarreal and Oscar “Lobo” Valencia.
They claimed to have paid millions of dollars to Garcia Luna collectively, and through Arturo Beltran Leyva, who ran his own drug cartel and served as a go-between with Garcia Luna, known as a “supercop,” in exchange for protection.
Nothing like snitching on law enforcement to help yourself get out of a sticky situation.
Garcia Luna was eventually arrested in Texas in December 2019 and charged with five counts including cocaine trafficking conspiracy and making false statements to authorities. His wife and two children were in court when his guilty verdict was announced.
You have to wonder if he’ll end up in the same prison as El Chapo. Just sayin.’
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El Chapo’s money was longer than we all thought. It is alleged he had Mexico’s top crime cop literally on his payroll.
As per Raw Story, Genaro García Luna was once perceived by the country of Mexico as an upstanding public official who was dedicated his life to putting a finish to his country’s longstanding drug war. As the appointed secretary of public security, Luna added over 30,000 police officers to their federal force among other efforts to better fight crime. This week, his reputation took a huge hit during a federal trial where one of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s former associates, testified that he used to give Luna huge lump sums of cash to ensure he would turn a blind eye to his illegal activities.
”He also had a second job, a dirtier job, a more profitable job,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Pilmar said at Luna’s trial in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday, Jan. 23. The Sinaloa Cartel would pay to keep their operation going by paying “to buy off the federal police, to put them on the payroll, to make them them part of the organization,” Pilmar said. “The defendant took their cash and betrayed his oath to his country.”
At El Chapo’s trial, cartel confidant turned informant testified he would bring Luna millions of dollars at a time during meetings at a restaurant. The federal prosecutor claim Luna would advise the cartel on pending arrests, let drugs go unscreened at checkpoints and flip some of his local force to act as bodyguards for the drug syndicate. “Members of the jury, the evidence will show that the defendant, the person who was supposed to be in charge of fighting the Sinaloa cartel, was actually its most valuable asset,” Pilmar explained in his opening statement.
But Luna’s defense attorney Cesar de Castro alleges his client was not corrupt and all the evidence comes from criminals who wanted him dead. “What better revenge than to bury the man who led the war against the cartels?” de Castro said. “These murderers, torturers, kidnappers literally get to kill two birds with one stone.” On Dec. 9, 2019, García Luna was arrested in Dallas on charges of taking millions in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel. He has pleaded not guilty to the bribery charges.
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It looks like notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is plotting his next great escape from a maximum-security prison. But instead of having his henchmen break him out, El Chapo is appealing to the President of Mexico to help him regain his freedom.
Raw Story is reporting that the former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel has been suffering “psychological torment” in the U.S. prison he’s currently being held at according to his Mexico-based lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez. And “In the six years that Joaquin has been in the United States, he has not seen the sun.”
Naturally we doubt that anyone will be losing any sleep over the fact that El Chapo isn’t getting enough time to shine in the sun, but some feel the statement was a cry for help to get the drug lord some governmental assistance.
The message, described as “an SOS,” was transmitted via one of Guzman’s lawyers in the United States as well as his family, Rodriguez said.
Guzman is only allowed outside three times a week to a small area where he “doesn’t get the sun,” and has fewer visits or phone calls than other inmates, the lawyer said in an interview with Radio Formula.
Stating that the lack of vitamin D from the sun is taking it’s toll on El Chapo’s physical health, Rodriguez wrote an email to the Mexican embassy in the U.S. in hopes of getting some kind of help for his client’s current situation. Ultimately, El Chapo wants Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to “address alleged procedural violations during his extradition in 2017 under the former government.”
Good look with that, papa.
Needless to say, the complaint from Rodriguez doesn’t seem to be swaying Mexican officials to intervene in the situation, or even poke around as El Chapo ran arguably the most violent and murderous drug cartel in Mexico’s history.
Without referring to the content of the email, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard downplayed the chance of any government intercession in favor of the notorious drug trafficker. “He is serving a sentence there, he has a sentence,” he told journalists. “So, frankly I don’t see any possibilities for him, but I’m going to review it with the prosecutor’s office.”
Cue Bill Withers “Ain’t No Sunshine.”