“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla, El Vicentillo, son of the noted leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, was seen at an airport that serves Washington, D.C., in the United States, when he was preparing to take a flight to another destination within the same country.
The incident occurred on Monday, January 29, when the man was in what appears to be a branch of the popular “U Street Pub” located in Terminal B/C of the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Arlington County, Virginia. His photo was captured through a cell phone camera.
Known as Reagan National, Reagan Airport, or simply DCA, this airport is located across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Presumably Vicentillo would land hours later at the Miami Airport, according to sources consulted by Semanario ZETA.
In the image leaked to the editorial staff of this Weekly news portal, the oldest of the sons of the Sinaloa Cartel boss can be seen with a face marked by his 48 years of age, compared to those photographs from March 2009 when he was detained in Mexico. Then, dressed in jeans, a striped shirt and a dark jacket, he maintained a defiant expression. Now, his face looks bedraggled.
Two years after his arrest in Mexico, in February 2010, Mayo Zambada’s son was extradited to the United States, processed in a prison in Chicago, Illinois. Another image of the young man was released and he was seen with the classic prisoner uniform and shaved head.
This week, according to the informant who provided the new image, the ex-convict who is free, but under the supervision of the North American authorities, was seen dressed in a black shirt and a watch with a strap of the same color. He was captured getting up from a chair in what appears to be a restaurant. You can see how he is preparing to put on a jacket, and in front of him you can see a woman with her back turned where only her wavy, dyed and tied hair can be seen.
ZETA offered the photograph leaked to this editorial office to various security and military sources for analysis. In all cases they confirmed that it was Vicentillo Zambada. A comparative facial analysis was also carried out with the photographs widely disseminated through various national and international media. The study showed a 97.7 percent coincidence.
It was in July 2021 when The Associated Press agency reported that the son of “Mayo” Zambada was no longer imprisoned in any prison in the American Union, according to the consultation made to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP, for its acronym). in English).
The exact date of his release was not established, it was only known that a year earlier he requested his early release, but a Court in Chicago, Illinois, denied the request to the son of “Mayo” Zambada for not arguing “extraordinary and convincing reasons that justify his liberation.”
To date, the date on which Vicente Zambada left the prison where he was being held has not been established. Zambada Niebla is the godson of fellow drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, against whom he testified during the so-called trial of the century that was held between the end of 2019 and June 2020, to gain benefits that would help him in his conviction.
The last thing that was officially known in the United States was that, at the beginning of July 2020, a Court in Chicago, Illinois, denied freedom to the son of “Mayo” Zambada, who had requested to be released from prison early. At that time he did not argue “extraordinary and convincing reasons to justify his release.”
El Vicentillo was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the Federal Court of the Northern District of Illinois since May 30, 2019. At that hearing, after being captured in March 2009 in Mexico City, the young man had served 10 years in prison , he was expected to be released in 2024.
In December 2020, at a discussion table with Aristegui Noticias, journalist Antonio Nieto revealed that the narco-junior would soon be released from prison in the United States “with a new name, but the same face of violence.” He also assured that Zambada Niebla would return to Mexico, motivating a rearrangement in the geography of drug trafficking.
Vicente Zambada Niebla was subject to supervision by the North American government and among the prohibitions imposed on him was not to leave that country and not to approach his criminogenic family.
In April 2022, US authorities removed Vicentillo from their blacklist of drug trafficking leaders. The announcement of the delisting along with his various aliases was announced through the Treasury Department portal.
The Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published that Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias Vicente Sotelo Guzmán, Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla, El Mayito, were left off the lists.
The companies Nueva Industria Ganadera de Culiacán, S.A. were also eliminated. of C.V.; Establo Puerto Rico S.A. of C.V. and Multiservicios Jeviz S.A. de C.V., all located in the capital of the state of Sinaloa, linked to Zambada. In Mexico there is no known current arrest warrant issued against him.