One of the world\u2019s most powerful drug lords, Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, leader of Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas.
\nZambada, 76, founded the criminal organisation with Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman, who is currently jailed in the US.
\nArrested with Zambada on Thursday was Guzman\u2019s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, said the US justice department.
\nIn February, Zambada was charged by US prosecutors with a conspiracy to make and distribute fentanyl, a drug more powerful than heroin that has been blamed for the US opioid crisis.
\nDetails of the arrests of the two men remain unclear, but it appears they flew into the United States.
\nCiting Mexican and US officials, the Wall Street Journal reports that Zambada was tricked into boarding the plane by a high-ranking Sinaloa member following a months-long operation by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI.
\nThe paper added that Zambada believed he was going to inspect clandestine airfields in Mexico.
\nOfficials said Zambada was \u201clured\u201d onto a private plane under \u201cfalse pretences\u201d by Guzman Lopez, the New York Times reports.
\nZambada believed the plane would fly south in Mexico but instead it flew north and landed in El Paso, said Fox News Correspondent Bryan Llenas citing law enforcement sources.
\nGuzman Lopez surrendered to US authorities and turned on Zambada because he \u201cblamed Mayo for the capture of his father\u201d, Mr Llenas added.
\nIn a written statement on Thursday evening, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the two men lead \u201cone of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organisations in the world\u201d.
\n\u201cFentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,\u201d he added.
\nAmerican prosecutors say the Sinaloa cartel is the biggest supplier of drugs to the US.
\nUS authorities have previously noted that fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45.<\/p>\n
The post Leader of Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa drug cartel arrested in Texas<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the world\u2019s most powerful drug lords, Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, leader of Mexico\u2019s Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas. Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organisation with Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman, who is currently jailed in the US. Arrested with Zambada on Thursday was Guzman\u2019s son, Joaquin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}