▶ Watch Video: How the FBI captured 2 leaders of the Sinaloa cartel
Mexico said Tuesday it is investigating whether its sovereignty was violated by the United States in the 2024 capture of drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, in the latest flareup of diplomatic tensions over Washington’s war on cartels.
The inquiry comes after the FBI displayed in an exhibition the plane used to bring most-wanted Zambada, co-founder of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, to the United States.
“If one of the U.S. agencies participated in this operation, they would be violating international treaties and the (Mexican) constitution,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily press conference.
Zambada was arrested in the United States in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is also imprisoned.
When Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to U.S. narcotrafficking charges last December, he admitted to having kidnapped Zambada to bring him to the United States — a betrayal meant to win favor with U.S. authorities. According to details revealed in Guzman’s plea deal, Zambada was ambushed, loaded onto a plane, drugged and spirited across the border to the United States.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said in 2024 that no U.S. agency had participated in the operation, Mexican government secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said at the morning news conference.
“The versions are contradictory. Someone lied,” she said.
“What agreements did that agency have, or who else participated with the criminal group?” Sheinbaum said, according to La Jornada. “In this case, everything seems to indicate that the ambassador (Ken Salazar) lied.”
Last August, Zambada pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his role as a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, including drug trafficking, gun offenses and money laundering. Federal prosecutors alleged that Zambada and other Sinaloa cartel leaders were responsible for massive quantities of heroin, cocaine and fentanyl and other illegal drugs being distributed into the U.S.
CBS News
The war between factions of the Sinaloa cartel unleashed after the arrest of Zambada has left thousands dead and missing.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that drug cartels control Mexico, warning he will use boots on the ground south of the border if Sheinbaum doesn’t crack down on criminal gangs.
Sheinbaum has downplayed the threats, emphasizing that Mexican soldiers use U.S. intelligence to track down narcotraffickers — as with the killing of cartel boss Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera in a raid in February.
In April, two CIA agents died in unclear circumstances during an anti-drug operation alongside soldiers and state police in the border state of Chihuahua — without apparent authorization from Mexico’s federal government.
Sheinbaum’s administration opened an investigation, still ongoing, into whether the presence of the agents represented a violation of national security laws, creating fresh diplomatic friction.
Days later, the U.S. Justice Department indicted the then-governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha Moya, as well as nine other current and former officials, on drug charges.
Rocha Moya is a member of Sheinbaum’s ruling left-leaning Morena party — and a close ally of her mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Sheinbaum responded to the indictments by requesting the U.S. provide “irrefutable” evidence against Rocha Moya before potentially extraditing him.