Mexico dissatisfied with the cross-border cooperation with Washington in the fight against drugs? Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday asked the United States for a “full report” on the arrest Thursday in Texas of two leaders of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, including its co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, alias “El Mayo,” during an operation, in which Mexico did not participate.
“The US government must provide a comprehensive report, not just general statements, there must be information, there must be transparency,” Manuel Lopez Obrador demanded during his daily press conference.
President Joe Biden earlier welcomed the operation, which deals a major blow to one of the “deadliest” drug-trafficking networks in the world. They are “two of the most prominent leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the deadliest organizations in the world,” the president emphasized in a press release, recalling that “too many of our fellow citizens are dying because of the scourge of fentanyl.” .
A plane bound for… the United States
At the end of a particularly daring infiltration operation, the two leaders of the cartel with international ramifications were picked up when their private plane landed in Texas, the huge American state that borders Mexico, the press revealed after the announcement of their arrest on the night of d. Thursday through Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of the famous cartel leader “El Chapo”, had convinced “El Mayo” to board a plane supposedly going to southern Mexico, but the plane was actually heading north and landed in El Paso, United States, according to Fox News.
The son of “El Chapo,” a drug trafficker who co-founded the Sinaloa cartel and is currently serving a life sentence in the U.S. following his 2019 conviction, lured “El Mayo” onto the plane “under false pretenses,” according to senior U.S. officials officials quoted by the New York Times. The Justice Department said the two men were arrested.
They both face prosecution in the United States for their alleged roles in the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic drug and “the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced,” specified US Attorney General Merrick Garland. This synthetic opioid, 50 times stronger than heroin, causes an overdose death in one American every eight minutes.
“El Mayo’s” arrest strikes “at the heart of the cartel responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, that kill Americans from coast to coast,” said Anne Milgram, the head of the DEA, the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
Key members of the cartel, who were born in the state of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico, are regularly extradited to the United States by Mexico, a neighboring country with which Washington is constantly seeking to strengthen cooperation in the fight against drug traffickers. The United States recorded more than 107,000 overdose deaths in 2023, with fentanyl responsible for about 70% of them, according to official figures.
Drug violence in Mexico
In Mexico, violence linked to the drug trade is wreaking havoc, with more than 450,000 people murdered since the government launched a military offensive against drug cartels in 2006. Victims include members of the security forces or several journalists. The criminal network “has established connections at the highest levels of the federal police and the Mexican army,” according to Insight Crime.
The Sinaloa cartel is also among the long list of areas of contention between Washington and Beijing. In June, the US Department of Justice charged “shadow Chinese bankers” with helping the network launder more than $50 million in drug proceeds.
