The United States arrested two of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers on Thursday and accused them of being responsible for the growing presence of fentanyl in the country, where it has devastated communities.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, 76, and Joaquín Guzmán López, 35, were taken into custody on Thursday, according to the Justice Department. The two men lead the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the biggest criminal organizations in Mexico responsible for a wave of violence that has left a painful scar on Mexico in the past three decades.
Here’s what to know about the arrests and the cartel:
How were they arrested?
Mr. Zambada García boarded a plane on Thursday with Mr. Guzmán López, who told him they were going to visit investment properties, according to two U.S. law enforcement officials who asked for anonymity to discuss the case. Mr. Zambada García was unaware, the two people said, that the plane was headed for the United States, where officers were waiting to arrest him. Many details of the arrest are unknown.
In the past, even when leaders of the cartels have been imprisoned in Mexico, they have continued to run their criminal organizations. That has prompted the Mexican authorities to allow top leaders to be extradited to the United States. Mr. Zambada García has been indicted at least five times in the United States.
What is the Sinaloa Cartel known for?
The cartel was founded in the late 1980s by Mr. Zambada García and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the father of Mr. Guzmán López, after one of Mexico’s most notorious cartels splintered into rival groups. The two consolidated control over drug routes into the United States and over the next few decades built the cartel into one of Mexico’s most violent and successful, controlling enterprises including drug and human trafficking, and money laundering.
The U.S. State Department recently raised the reward for the arrest of Mr. Zambada García to $15 million, highlighting his role in the rise of fentanyl, a synthetic drug produced in Mexico that kills about 100,000 people in the United States each year. Mr. Zambada García has kept a much lower profile than his co-founder, “El Chapo” Guzmán. Mr. Guzmán was known to court the media and was something of a celebrity in Mexico, where bands wrote ballads about him. Mr. Guzmán’s son rose to power after his father was extradited to the United States in 2017, where he is now serving a life sentence.
How did the Sinaloa Cartel become so powerful?
Most of Mexico’s cartels began by moving drugs to the United States for trafficking organizations in Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s. By the ’90s, the Mexican cartels began to carve their own space as the influence of the Colombian groups waned. The ’90s were marked by battles among the cartels to control the most lucrative drug routes, and the violence often spilled into society. By the early 2000s, groups like Los Zetas, made up of former military officers, rose to rival the Gulf and Sinaloa Cartels.
The fighting worsened under President Vicente Fox in the early 2000s, with border towns like Ciudad Juárez falling under the control of cartels. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, who was president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, sent thousands of police to northern Mexico, home to many of the cartels, sparking a war that has killed at least 420,000 people and left thousands more missing.
The fighting and arrests led the cartels to consolidate, and the Sinaloa Cartel rose to the top. Its members remain powerful and have made their way into Mexican society. Government officials, including Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former public security secretary, have been arrested and convicted of taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.
While Mexico’s cartels have long focused on trafficking cocaine and other drugs, they have also become central players in the production and distribution of fentanyl in the United States. The United States has warned China to cut the flow of key ingredients used to make fentanyl in Mexico.
What do the arrests mean for the Sinaloa Cartel?
Arrests of cartel leaders have done little to stop the flow of drugs to the United States and Europe. Typically, when a leader is arrested or killed, it sets off a violent battle over controlling lucrative routes to the United States.
Before his extradition to the United States, the elder Guzmán had been arrested at least three times since the 1990s. Over those three decades, he led the cartel, often from prison, during a period marked by extreme violence.
The Sinaloa Cartel is already deeply fragmented, and, if anything, the arrests will probably lead to more infighting, said Falko Ernst, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
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