Mexican authorities are considering prosecuting those who extradited to the United States last month the country’s most wanted drug lord, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel.
On July 25, U.S. authorities announced that Zambada Garcia had been detained in El Paso, Texas, along with Joaquin Guzmán López, the son of the cartel’s other co-founder, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Authorities said Guzman Lopez flew to the United States to turn himself in to U.S. authorities, but before he could leave Mexico he abducted Zambada Garcia and forced her onto a plane.
Far from thanking the United States for the arrest of Zambada Garcia, the head of a drug cartel that has spread fear and violence across Mexico for decades, Mexican prosecutors are considering filing treason charges against Guzman Lopez and everyone else involved in the kidnapping.
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This composite image provided by the U.S. State Department shows Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, left, the historic leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of another notorious cartel leader, after their arrest by U.S. authorities in Texas, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday, July 25, 2024. (U.S. Department of State via Associated Press)
Mexican prosecutors said on Sunday they had opened a criminal investigation into allegations of “illegal flight, illegal use of an airport, immigration and customs violations, kidnapping, treason and other possible offenses.”
The United States has offered a $15 million bounty for Zambada Garcia’s capture, and Mexico’s response is based on the country’s criminal code, which provides for up to 40 years in prison for treason, the Associated Press reported.
The penal code’s provisions include the traditional definition of treason, such as attacking Mexico on behalf of a foreign power or serving in a foreign army, but also state that it is treason to illegally kidnap “any person within Mexico with the intent of delivering him to the authorities of another country.”
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Ismael Zambada is seen in an undated police-distributed photograph. (Procuraduria General de la Republica/Distribution via Reuters)
The provision was added in response to the 1990 kidnapping of Humberto Machine, a Mexican doctor who was kidnapped in Mexico and extradited to the United States. Machine was wanted for the 1985 torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Kiki Camarena.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday questioned U.S. policy of locking up drug cartel leaders, reportedly asking “why not change that policy?”
Zambada Garcia’s lawyers released a letter from their client over the weekend, alleging that he was ambushed and kidnapped after he thought he was going to meet with the governor of Sinaloa, but Zambada Garcia claims he was taken to the United States against his will.
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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds his regular morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
Zambada Garcia also reportedly claimed in the letter that Guzman Lopez asked him to attend a meeting with local politicians on July 25, but he was taken to a room, beaten to the ground and had a hood placed over his head. Zambada Garcia said he was handcuffed and driven in a pickup truck to an airstrip and taken to U.S. territory.
In a letter, Governor Richa Moya questioned the ties between Sinaloa politicians and drug traffickers, but the governor denied any criminal ties and claimed he was not in Sinaloa on the day of the kidnapping – he reportedly said he was in Los Angeles.
The Attorney General’s Office took over the case from the Sinaloa state prosecutor’s office.
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Zambada Garcia faces multiple charges in the US, including one indicted in the Eastern District of New York in February for conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, and prosecutors say he led “one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world”.
Now that Zambada Garcia is behind bars, experts say many powerful figures in Mexico will fear he will cooperate with U.S. authorities in search of a better deal and accuse them of working with drug cartels.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
