One of the biggest cartel busts in recent memory began with an act of betrayal

By Catherine E. Shoichet, Rafael Romo, Holmes Lybrand, Evan Perez and Polo Sandoval, CNN

(CNN) — How did an alleged cartel kingpin who evaded capture for more than half a century end up in the hands of US federal agents?

According to officials, it started with an act of betrayal.

Details are still emerging about what led last week to one of the most significant and stunning cartel busts in recent memory.

US officials who’ve spoken with CNN say a key player in the operation to arrest Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was another major cartel figure who was arrested beside him.

Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of convicted cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, duped Zambada and orchestrated their arrest, officials told CNN.

Zambada’s lawyer described what happened in harsher terms Sunday, accusing Guzmán López of kidnapping.

“Joaquín Guzmán López forcibly kidnapped my client. He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquin. His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head,” attorney Frank Pérez said in a statement sent to CNN.

“He was then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and taken to a landing strip. There, he was forced onto a plane, his legs tied to the seat by Joaquin, and brought to the U.S. against his will. The only people on the plane were the pilot, Joaquín and my client,” Pérez added.

U.S. officials had previously told CNN that Zambada, 76, thought he and Guzmán López were flying to northern Mexico to look at real estate. But instead, the officials said, their small private plane landed north of the border near El Paso, Texas, where US authorities were waiting on the tarmac.

So far, we haven’t heard Guzmán López’s account of what happened. The 38-year-old is expected to appear in federal court Tuesday in Chicago, his attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, told CNN.

Lichtman said in an email Saturday that he’d appear in court with Guzmán López and added, “I’m looking forward to seeing Joaquin and working on the case with him.” He declined further comment.

Zambada pleaded not guilty to all charges in his first federal court appearance Friday. Sunday’s accusation from his attorney was the latest twist in a case that seems to get murkier with each account that emerges.

One cartel expert told CNN he’s dubious of some details officials have shared.

“It would not surprise me at all if the story changes from today to tomorrow, or next week,” said InSight Crime’s Steven Dudley, who’s spent more than a decade investigating drug trafficking and organized crime.

And as reporters pressed for answers in a contentious press conference Friday, Mexico’s president suggested he, too, has many questions about what occurred.

“The government of the United States has to give a complete report. It can’t be just general statements,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said. “There has to be transparency.”

This much is clear: The arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López mark a major development in decades-long efforts to capture and prosecute alleged cartel bosses. And the details revealed so far about what led to this dramatic moment offer a telling glimpse into the inner workings of what authorities describe as one of the world’s most notorious and nefarious criminal enterprises.

Authorities had closed in on ‘El Mayo’ before

It wasn’t the first time authorities had Zambada in their sights.

In a 2010 interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, Zambada said Mexico’s military had come close to capturing him at least four times before.

“I fled through the highlands, where I know the branches, the streams, the rocks, everything. They catch me if I am still or if I am careless, like El Chapo,” he said.

At the time, Zambada told Proceso that fear about being captured weighed on him constantly.

“I’m terrified that they’ll lock me up,” he said.

That 2010 interview was one of the last known public appearances for the notably lower-profile Zambada. His name surged into international headlines in 2018 and 2019 during the high-profile trial of Guzmán, whose lawyer argued that Zambada was the cartel’s true leader.

Lichtman, the defense attorney, also represented the elder Guzmán and alleged at the time that Zambada had bribed the Mexican government to frame El Chapo and remain free to run the cartel.

In 2021, US authorities raised the reward for information leading to Zambada’s arrest to $15 million.

Over the years, Zambada’s storied ability to evade capture was referenced in narcocorrido ballads about him. The 2022 corrido “Señor Zambada,” performed by El Fantasma and Enigma Norteño from Zambada’s perspective, includes the lines: “I know very well that they want to catch me, that the government wanted to lock me up. But they are going to keep wanting that, because no matter how much they look, they are not going to find me.”

His elusive reputation also caught the attention of his enemies, former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mike Vigil told CNN.

“Mayo Zambada, prior to (Thursday) and over 50 years of involvement in the drug trade had never been captured, never served any time,” Vigil said, “so he is highly respected even by his rivals.”

Dudley of InSight Crime pointed to this aspect of Zambada’s past when he told CNN en Español he was skeptical of accounts that painted the Sinaloa cartel leader as an unwitting victim who was tricked into being captured.

“I’m not 100% convinced that’s what happened. I see in El Mayo Zambada a person who’s older. He’s 76. I see a person who’s also experienced, a person who knows exactly when and from where any deception is coming,” Dudley said. “That’s why he’s never stepped foot in a jail until yesterday. So I have my doubts. That is to say, I think that we’re still missing information.”

Officials say they exploited a rift in the cartel

Officials who spoke with CNN said Zambada boarded a plane with Guzmán López Thursday thinking they’d be inspecting property together near the border. Zambada didn’t realize US investigators had exploited a rift in the Sinaloa cartel, one official said, and that Guzmán López was in fact helping with Zambada’s capture.

A long-simmering power struggle between Zambada and El Chapo’s sons, also known as the Chapitos, was about to boil over.

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, which led the operation, were skeptical at first when Guzmán López made the offer, an official familiar with the operation told CNN.

But as the plane they were flying in landed at the Santa Teresa airport near El Paso, Texas, on Thursday, federal agents were waiting.

One worker at the airport told Reuters that he saw a Beechcraft King Air land Thursday afternoon on the runway, where federal agents were already waiting.

“Two individuals got off the plane… and were calmly taken into custody,” said the man, who declined to share his name out of concern for his safety.

“It seemed like a pretty calm, arranged thing,” he added.

The entire operation, one source told CNN, went off surprisingly smoothly given the gravity of the arrests and the disruption it could cause to drug trafficking from Mexico.

Now that Zambada and Guzmán López are in US custody, authorities are ready to make the case against them.

Both Zambada and Guzmán López face charges in the US for allegedly leading the cartel’s criminal operations, including its “deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement after the arrests.

Top US officials trumpeted the arrests as a major victory. But some analysts were more measured in their assessment of the potential impact.

“It’s a historic capture, of course, and symbolic. But is it going to create a collateral effect or have an impact on drug trafficking? I really doubt that,” Dudley said. “As much because El Mayo had pulled back already from the day-to-day operations, and the world of drug trafficking is really now a different world from when he started. It’s much more decentralized. It’s much more like a franchise. There are contractors, subcontractors, other contractors. There are many parts that can be easily replaced.”

Speculating on what could happen next, Mexico’s president pointed to Zambada’s own words in the 2010 Proceso interview. If he were captured or killed, Zambada said that effectively nothing would happen. In the world of drug trafficking, he said, whether capos are “locked up, dead, or extradited, their replacements are already out there.”

Experts say there’s little doubt that these arrests, like past high-profile kingpin takedowns, will spur a new wave of violence as rival groups vie for territory and power.

And no matter what new details emerge about how they happened, the surprising and dramatic arrests won’t soon be forgotten.

CNN’s Ione Molinares, Fidel Gutiérrez, Abel Alvarado and Amanda Musa contributed to this report.

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