(NewsNation) — Mexican officials were not involved when two drug kingpins from the country, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, were arrested Thursday in Texas.
Zambada, 76, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, and 38-year-old Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of El Chapo, surrendered to United States authorities without incident. The Mexican government didn’t learn the arrests happened until after the fact, when they got a phone call from the U.S. Embassy, Rosa Icela Rodriguez, the country’s Secretary of Security, said at a news conference.
Sources tell NewsNation it was one of El Chapo’s sons who set Zambada up for the arrest by arranging for him to be flown to the border under the guise of checking out property.
U.S. officials had previously offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Zambada’s capture. One of the most notorious drug traffickers in the world, Zambada, along with López, oversaw the taking of “tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence,” FBI Director Christopher Wray, said, adding that the two will now “face justice in the United States.”
New video from Reuters shows Customs and Border Patrol agents surrounding a private jet believed to be holding Zambada and López after it landed at Santa Teresa International Jetport.
Because of this, Customs and Border Patrol warned agents there could now be escalated violence and blowback from Zambada’s supporters.
Another fear authorities have is the potential for a bloody power struggle to fill the void now at the top of the Sinaloa cartel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
