By “El Huaso” for Borderland Beat
Jason Antonio Yang López, a Guatemalan citizen accused of narco trafficking and linked to the El Mayo faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, was deported to Guatemala by the Mexican government on Sunday. Yang López has been identified by authorities as being involved in the trafficking of precursor chemicals for over a decade.
Yang Lopez was arrested by Mexican law enforcement in Tapachula, Chiapas last month after authorities identified him as being flagged by the United States government for allegedly being involved in trafficking fentanyl into the United States. He was received by Guatemalan authorities in Ayutla, San Marcos on Tuesday, who have accused him of trafficking fentanyl as well, according to Proceso.
The Sinaloa Cartel Link
In January 2023, the United States’ Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Yang López along with two other fentanyl traffickers for “procuring chemicals to manufacture and traffic illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs to the United States”. One of traffickers, Jose Angel Rivera Zazueta, “El Flaco” is Culiacan-based trafficker linked to the El Mayo faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, reports El Universal.
This is not Yang Lopez’s first arrest. On April 27, 2014, the National Police of Guatemala arrested him on charges related to narcotrafficking. Their investigation found that he trafficked precursor chemicals from China into Guatemala, and led an organization dedicated to the production of narcotics. He served a three year sentence in the Pavoncito prison in Guatemala City.
Shortly after being released from prison, he and another man were arrested by narcotics police on March 26, 2017 in Guatemala City. He attempted to pass himself off using a false Mexican identity of the name “Erick Chay Chang”. Police seized a false passport and two unregistered handguns.
After that, Guatemalan press reported that he disappeared from public view, until resurfacing last month.