In a stunning turn of events, two of the Sinaloa Cartel’s most-wanted drug traffickers are in custody in the United States, marking a historic moment for organized crime in Mexico but one unlikely to upend the flow of drugs that the criminal group traffics worldwide.
The US Justice Department announced in a July 25 press release that storied Sinaloa Cartel boss Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo,” and Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of the now-jailed former kingpin, Joaquín Guzmán alias “El Chapo,” were arrested in El Paso, Texas.
It is still unclear how the events unfolded. Several sources within the US government, who had knowledge of the operation but were not authorized to speak on the matter, told InSight Crime the pair orchestrated their handover to US authorities. However, other media reports suggested the two may have been brought to the United States under false pretenses, or that the younger Guzmán López had tricked the elder Zambada García.
Whatever the case, US Attorney General Merrick Garland lauded the arrests for advancing the fight against fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid that has driven a record number of drug overdose deaths in the United States. The Sinaloa Cartel is frequently cited as being one of two Mexican criminal groups that supplies the vast majority of fentanyl to the United States.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Garland said in a statement.
SEE ALSO: After Arrests, Extraditions, and Infighting, What Does the Future Hold for Mexico’s Chapitos?
Zambada García is one of the founding members of the Sinaloa Cartel and arguably the last member of the group’s old guard. Unlike many of his associates, he managed to evade capture for more than four decades, all while allegedly leading the drug trafficking operations of a key faction of the group.
He reportedly relied on several armed wings to operate. This included the Rusos and the Ántrax, which helped him maintain control over key trafficking corridors to the US-Mexico border, particularly in the northern states of Baja California and Sonora.
Before his capture, US authorities had offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York indicted Zambada García in February of this year for allegedly overseeing the “trafficking of tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the US.”
For his part, Guzmán López had been in the crosshairs of US authorities ever since Mexican officials extradited his father to the United States in 2016 following his third arrest. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has accused him and three of his brothers, known collectively as the Chapitos, of being among those primarily responsible for the flood of illicit fentanyl trafficked into the United States.
InSight Crime Analysis
The capture of Zambada García and Guzmán López by US authorities is an important but mostly symbolic victory. While the Sinaloa Cartel’s power and reach has long been based on its involvement in the cocaine trade, it is synthetic drugs, especially fentanyl, that have become the US priority over recent years.
While the capture of Zambada García marks the fall of the last remaining old-school drug trafficker in Mexico, sources told InSight Crime that he had largely taken a step back from the Sinaloa Cartel’s day-to-day operations in recent years.
Since a 2010 interview granted to legendary Mexican journalist Julio Scherer, El Mayo has maintained a very low profile despite the arrests of various associates and family members, some of whom, like his brother Jesus “El Rey” Zambada García and one of his sons, Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias “El Vincentillo,” went on to cooperate with US authorities.
Even so, his arrest is a feather in the cap for US authorities. It comes just about two months after El Mayo’s nephew, Eliseo Imperial Castro, alias “Cheyo Ántrax,” was ambushed and killed in Culiacán. Imperial Castro was a high-ranking member of his Sinaloa Cartel faction’s security wing.
However, these captures are not likely to affect the flow of synthetic drugs, especially fentanyl, into the United States.
The synthetic drug supply chain — with the high mutability of the ingredients, multiple supply lines stemming from the global chemical trade, and trace amounts trafficked — has made for a far more decentralized operation with relatively low barriers of entry, reducing the importance of single players like the Sinaloa Cartel.
This is particularly true of fentanyl. As InSight Crime has chronicled in a years-long investigation into the trade, the drug is produced clandestinely in Mexico by numerous operators using chemicals supplied mostly from China.
In Mexico, synthetic drug producers and traffickers of methamphetamine and fentanyl often work semi-independently and do not necessarily depend on hierarchical organizations or the Sinaloa Cartel factions operating under the thumb of the Chapitos and Zambada García.
SEE ALSO: DEA’s Emphasis on Defeating Cartels Oversimplifies Fentanyl Industry
InSight Crime spoke with several independent fentanyl and methamphetamine producers in Sinaloa and Michoacán over the past year, who said they have set up their own operations with the help of local and foreign chemical suppliers. They turn to large criminal organizations for security or to sell some of their products wholesale.
And while the Sinaloa Cartel plays a vital role in the transport and wholesale markets, it is but one part of a vast supply chain.
There is likely to be a temporary period of uncertainty among the factions associated with Zambada García and the Chapitos as they seek to realign themselves and renegotiate protection and commercial agreements. But for the dozens of independent and semi-independent drug production and trafficking networks, the recent arrests will not prevent them from continuing operations.
Featured image: Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo,” and Joaquín Guzmán López, son of the now-jailed , Joaquín Guzmán alias “El Chapo.” Credit: Noroeste.