Yesterday afternoon two top-level Mexican drug cartel leaders were arrested according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, and Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, were arrested after the private plane they were in landed at a jet port in Santa Teresa, north of El Paso. Although the news media is erroneously reporting that the arrests were made in El Paso, the two men were arrested in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, which is where the airport they landed at is located and where federal agents were waiting for them. The Doña Ana County Airport (KDNA), located at Santa Teresa, is owned by the Doña Ana County in New Mexico.
El Paso Matters ran the headline, “Sinaloa Cartel leaders arrested in El Paso,” yesterday as the news broke about the arrests. The headline with the erroneous information remains today, after Matters updated the article this morning. The Matters’ article does not carry a byline.
In addition to misreporting the location of the arrests, most of the news media is showing the wrong picture of the aircraft the men were in when they landed in Santa Teresa New Mexico.
Wrong Aircraft Reported
In addition to sourcing the wrong city for the arrests in several local and national news media reports, a picture of an aircraft parked at the Santa Teresa, credited to Jose Luis Gonzalez and Reuters has been used by Mexican and US national news outlets suggesting that the picture depicts the aircraft the two men arrived on when they were arrested. The picture seems to have originated from The New York Times which was the first to reveal that the son of imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Leora, Joaquín Guzmán López had “tricked” Zambada García into boarding the aircraft to be delivered to US federal officials.
Reuters reported that a Beechcraft King Air was used to fly the men to the US. The picture circulated by Reuters and The New York Times shows an aircraft that appears to be a Beechcraft King Air but does not show the registration number for the aircraft, so its ownership is difficult to ascertain.
Radar coverage for yesterday shows that three aircraft large enough to be used to transport the men from México to the US landed at the Doña Ana County Airport. One is a US Army helicopter, a Eurocopter UH-72A Lakota with tail number 72290 that frequently operates in the area and may have been helping in the operation to arrest the two alleged drug dealers.
Another aircraft that arrived on Thursday evening, after the arrests had been concluded was a Gulfstream GVII owned by a company connected to Paul Foster. El Pasoan Paul Foster is married to Juárez businesswoman Alejandra de la Vega who owns the FC Juárez (Bravos de Juárez) soccer team. The radar logs show that the Foster-owned aircraft departed Los Cabos at 6:32pm, El Paso time and arrived at Santa Teresa at 8:47pm.
The third aircraft that arrived at the Santa Teresa airport yesterday was a Cessna 210-5 Centurian. The Cessna is a single engine high-wing aircraft able to carry six passengers. The flight radar logs show that the Cessna departed Hermosillo General Ignacio Pesqueira Garcia International Airport at 8:05am, El Paso time. It appears that the aircraft was originally scheduled to land in Roswell, New Mexico. However, the radar logs show that the aircraft diverted to Santa Teresa at 11:34am. No reason for the diversion has been provided.
The radar log shows that the Cessna departed Santa Teresa at 11:53am., about 19 minutes after it landed. This suggests that the two individuals deplaned and were arrested, and the pilot and the aircraft continued their journey to Roswell Air Center. It arrived at Roswell at 1:28pm.
The FAA records for the aircraft shows that it is registered to an individual at an address in Roswell, New Mexico. We have chosen not to name the individual as it is unclear what involvement, if any, they had in the operation.
The Cessna 210 is a single engine aircraft capable of carrying six individuals. According to the flight radar, the aircraft had flown 329 miles before landing at Santa Teresa. That is about half of the range of the Cessna depending on its fuel and other loads on the aircraft at its departure. It normally flies at 195 miles per hour while cruising, or 130 miles per hour while conserving fuel.
Neither the Gulfstream nor the Cessna resemble the picture of the aircraft Reuters claims to have brought Zambada García to the US.
CNN today confirmed details about the arrests, although it continues to erroneously state the arrests were made in El Paso. Zambada García entered a not guilty plea at a court hearing this morning in El Paso, according to the US Attorney General.
CNN also confirmed that law enforcement officials told them that Zambada García boarded the aircraft “believing that they were inspecting property in Mexico near the US border.” According to CNN, it was the FBI who arrested the two individuals. The CNN article also confirmed that Mexican officials believe that a Cessna 205 that departed Hermosillo was the aircraft involved in the capture of the two men.
Both aircraft look similar with the 210 having retractable landing gear while the 206 has a fixed landing gear. However, the flight data for that day shows the aircraft was likely a 210.
Nonetheless, the Cessna Centurian is nothing like the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air that has been reported as the aircraft that the two men were in.
Although CNN did not confirm that El Chapo’s son betrayed Zambada García because he blamed him for his father’s arrest, CNN, however, confirms that Joaquín Guzmán López deceived him, suggesting that what Bryan Llenas posted on his X, formerly Twitter, account yesterday – that the reason for the betrayal was that El Chapo’s son “blamed Mayo for the capture of his father.” Llenas is a Fox News correspondent.
The Court Hearing
This morning Zambada García was ordered detained without bond until his detention hearing, which is set for July 31. The arraignment hearing was held in El Paso, where Zambada García waived his appearance and entered a not guilty plea.
Guzman López is expected to appear in a Chicago federal court for his court hearing in a few days.
The Drug Empire
Zambada García started drug trafficking in the early 1990’s as part of the Juárez cartel, then led by Amado Carillo Fuentes. The Juárez cartel was part of the Guadalajara cartel in the 1980’s. After forming alliances with Columbian cocaine traffickers, Zambada García formed his own drug cartel trafficking Columbian cocaine to the US. The US Department of State issued a $15 million award for Zambada García’s arrest in 2009.
Although officials have not released details about the arrests, unnamed federal officials have said that the arrests were the result of an operation over several months to arrest them. ABC News has reported that Zambada García was “tricked” into the aircraft believing he was on his way to inspect some properties. CNN and The New York Times have confirmed that Zambada García was tricked into flying into the hands of US officials. Although El Chapo’s son was also arrested at the airport, it is believed that he participated in the sting operation to lure Zambada García into the US so that Zambada García could be arrested.
Zambada García’s brother, Jesús “El Rey” Zambada was arrested in 2008 and testified against El Chapo. Released from prison in 2020, Jesús Zambada, who remains in witness protection, says he wants to be a songwriter of narcocorridos.
Zambada García’s three children have been arrested and released. Vicente Zambada Niebla was arrested in 2009 and extradited in 2013. He testified against El Chapo and is now in witness protection while serving a 15-year sentence. Serafín Zambada Ortiz was released in September 2018 after serving a five-year sentence for drug trafficking. His third son, Ismael Zambada Imperial, who was extradited by Mexican officials in 2019, plead guilty to drug charges and was sentenced to prison. Sometime before April 2021, he was released and is now believed to be living somewhere in the US.
Four of El Chapo’s sons are facing drug trafficking charges in the US. Ovidio “El Ratón” Guzmán López was arrested in México and extradited to the US in 2023. It has been suggested that Joaquín Guzmán López lured Zambada García to the US to help his brothe,r Ovidio, with his criminal case. Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, the other two Chapo sons remain at large. Joaquín Guzmán López was arrested yesterday in Santa Teresa.
In a statement to the Associated Press, former head of operations for the DEA, Mike Vigil acknowledged that the arrests of the two cartel leaders will not lead to “a dent on the drug trade because somebody” else in the drug cartel will replace them. Although the arrest of the two is likely to lead to a turf war between warring drug organizations, the revelation that Zambada García was tricked by one of Chapo’s sons could lead to a new violent and bloody drug cartel war.
Note: Martín Paredes is the author of Convicting Chapo: Naked and Afraid – the Trial to Convict El Chapo, 2019.
Martín Paredes is a Mexican immigrant who built his business on the U.S.-Mexican border. Straddling the U.S.-México border for many years, Martín understands that the imaginary line separating two countries on a map creates two cultural identities that merge creating a culture that is unique to the borderland. Since 2000, Martín has been reporting on the border politics, the corruption and the public policy of one of the most unique communities in the world by exposing the secrets few dare to.
