Powerful cartel leader was duped by El Chapo’s son into flying to U.S., sources say

A leader and co-founder of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel is in U.S. custody thanks to a stunning betrayal by one of the sons of imprisoned Mexican kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, a source told CBS News. 

The arrest of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada ended more than four decades of his leadership of the deadly criminal organization he founded with Guzmán Loera, who is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 of charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses.

One of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, 38, allegedly duped Zambada into boarding a plane on Thursday, telling him they were going to look at property in Mexico, a person familiar with the investigation confirmed to CBS News. Instead, the plane landed near El Paso, Texas, where Zambada, 76, was arrested by U.S. law enforcement agents from the FBI and HSI.

Both men were taken into custody on the tarmac. The flight and subsequent landing happened “very quickly and very quietly” with no incident once the men exited the plane, a senior law enforcement official confirmed to CBS News. 

Joaquín Guzmán López, who is known for running cartel finances while keeping a low profile, cut a deal on behalf of him and his brother Ovidio, a senior law enforcement official confirmed to CBS News. Three sons of Guzmán Loera —including Ovidio Guzmán López— were charged last year with orchestrating a transnational fentanyl trafficking operation into the United States. Ovidio was extradited to the U.S. in 2023, months after U.S. prosecutors unsealed sprawling indictments against him and his brothers, known collectively as the “Chapitos.”

The Sinaloa Cartel runs “the largest, most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world,” according to U.S. officials. 

El Chapo is said to have 12 children, but the Chapitos ran an extremely violent offshoot of the cartel known for its brutal torture of rivals. Some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers,” according to a federal indictment. 

Ovidio Guzmán López, known as “the Mouse,” was captured by Mexican security forces in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state, in January 2023 in a violent sting that killed 30 people.

Bureau of Prisons inmate records show Guzmán López was apparently removed from his detention center three days ago, but U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar confirmed in a statement that Ovidio remained in U.S. custody. 

The joint DHS-FBI operation to capture Zambada had been in the works for months; him and Joaquín Guzmán López were taken into custody by some of the same agents working on Ovidio Guzmán López’s case,  a senior law enforcement official confirmed to CBS News. 

A senior law enforcement official described the arrests to CBS News as a “let’s see if this works” kind of operation that sprung into motion in recent days, though planning had been going on for far longer. 

Zambada and “El Chapo” partnered in the late 1980s to super charge their cocaine and marijuana smuggling operations. After “El Chapo” was captured in 2016, Zambada became the most senior leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and became known for his extraordinary ability to avoid capture. 

—Nicole Sganga and Pat Milton contributed reporting.