‘El Mayo’ Zambada releases statement saying he was kidnapped before arrest in El Paso area
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) - Mexican drug kingpin Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada said in a statement released by his lawyer Saturday that there have been "many inaccurate reports in the media of both countries (Mexico and the United States)" about what led to his arrest in the El Paso area.
In Zambada's statement, he said he was brought by plane to the United States after Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo's sons, asked him to meet and help "solve differences among the political leaders in their home state."
The dispute he referred to in his statement, is between the Governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha Moya, and the Mayor of Culiacan, Hector Melesio Cuen Ojeda about who should lead the university of Sinaloa.
Zambada stated he was under the impression Cuen, Moya, and Ivan Guzman Salazar would be attending the meeting with him and Guzman Lopez.
He said that on July 25 he arrived at the Huertos del Pedregal ranch and saw armed men in green military uniforms and assumed they were security detail for Guzman and his brothers.
Zambada said he made his way inside. "I saw Joaquin Guzman Lopez, whom I have known since he was a young boy, and he gestured for me to follow him," said Zambada in his statement. "Trusting the nature of the meeting and people involved, I followed without hesitation."
He said he was ambushed as soon as he walked into a dark room, was knocked to the ground by a group of men, they placed a dark-colored hood over his head, tied him up, handcuffed him, then forced him into a pickup truck where he was assaulted receiving injuries to his back, knees, and wrists, according to his written statement.
Zambada said that he was taken to a landing strip and forced onto a private plane occupied by Guzman Lopez and a pilot. He said the fight took about three hours.
U.S. federal agents took him into custody when they arrived at the Doña Ana County Jetport in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
"I was brought to the country forcibly and under duress, without my consent and against my will," Zambada said. He added that the notion he surrendered is false.
The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, said on Friday that Joaquin Guzman Lopez turned himself in voluntarily and that current evidence shows Zamaba was taken against his will and that U.S. resources were not used in anyway.
Salazar's release further stated that the flight originated in Sinaloa and landed in Santa Teresa and that the pilot was not contracted by either the U.S. government or any other U.S. agency.
In his statement, Zambada mentions the murder of Hector Cuen, who Zambada says was a longtime friends of his. "I am aware that the official version being told by Sinaloa state authorities is that Héctor Cuen was shot in the evening of July 25th at a gas station by two men on a motorcycle who wanted to rob his pick-up truck. That is not what happened. He was killed at the same time, and in the same place, where I was kidnapped."
Through his statement, Zambada said it is important for the truth to come out and called on both the Mexican and U.S. authorities to be transparent about the events of July 25.
Zambada ended his statement by calling on the people of Sinaloa to "use restraint and maintain peace in our state. Nothing can be solved by violence. We have been down that road before, and everyone loses."
