As the leader of one of the world’s largest and most brutal drug trafficking organizations, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is far from the “narco” stereotype portrayed on some TV special.
Unlike his partner, former Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Zambada has operated largely out of the glare of public and media attention. He wasn’t labeled Public Enemy No. 1. He dresses simply, prefers life on one of his many cattle ranches to extravagant parties, yachts, or beachside nightclubs. Those who know him often referred to him as “Del Sombrero,” after his trademark wide-brimmed cowboy hat.
“He’s a straight-up rancher, old school,” said Pedro Flores, the convicted drug trafficker from Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood who, along with his twin brother, helped the U.S. government bring indictments against a slew of Sinaloa figures, including Zambada and Chapo. “The way he treated people, he was the most understanding…always looking to please the people around him.”
Flores spoke to the Tribune with his longtime attorney, Robert Rascia, following the bombshell news Thursday that Zambada had been arrested in Texas along with one of Chapo’s sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Flores said he was “shocked” by the development — a story that was still unfolding Friday with reports that Zambada had been tricked by an associate into crossing the border and that the U.S. Justice Department had to scramble to get him.
“It is a big win for the U.S. government,” said Flores, who is living in an undisclosed location after completing his 14-year prison sentence. “I think he’s cooperating. Everyone gets tired of that life at some point.”
A leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel for decades alongside El Chapo, Zambada was known for running the cartel’s smuggling operations while keeping a lower profile. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture.
A Mexican federal official told The Associated Press on Friday that Zambada and Guzmán López arrived in the United States on a private plane and turned themselves in to authorities. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized discuss the matter.
“The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Garland’s statement said both Zambada and Guzmán López were facing multiple charges “for leading the cartel’s criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks.”
Among those indictments was one filed in Chicago’s federal court in 2009, fueling speculation that both Zambada and Guzman Lopez could be tried here.
Court records show Zambada had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in El Paso on Thursday and was ordered held pending a detention hearing. On Friday, the records updated to show he waived a detention hearing as well as an in-person arraignment, instead having his attorney file a not guilty plea on his behalf.
The attorney listed on Zambada’s paperwork did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Guzman Lopez is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Chicago in the coming days, sources said. There were no court docket entries for him in El Paso.
Meanwhile, El Mayo’s arrest is in many ways the culmination of the extraordinary cooperation that the Flores twins embarked on nearly two decades ago, agreeing to work with DEA agents while still living in Mexico and dealing directly with Sinaloa’s upper echelon leaders.
While much was made of the recordings the twins made of Chapo, both Peter Flores and his brother, Margarito, told the Tribune that they dealt more often with Zambada, who embodied many of the same characteristics as their father, Margarito Sr.
Margarito Flores, who goes by the nickname Jay, recalled in an interview Friday how Zambada “never used the phone, ever,” preferring to meet face-to-face at one of his many ranches around central Mexico. He said some of those meetings took place under the shade of a tree, not some gilded office, where Zambada would on the ground in his Timberland boots.
“It was simple. It wasn’t Tony Montana in Scarface,” he said. “He reminded me a lot of my father…
“He said, ‘You are my guests today and I’m going to serve you,’” Jay said.
Both twins also said Zambada often boasted to them about his dream to buy up all the fertile farmland along the Sinaloa coast.
“He said he wanted to own all the land from Culiacan to Mazatlan,” Peter Flores said.
Both twins acknowledged that El Mayo’s organization was vicious and responsible for innumerable acts of violence. But unlike El Chapo, they said, Zambada was able to insulate himself from the day-to-day realities of the cartel world, delegating authority to his sons and others.
El Mayo’s arrest comes more than a decade after his son, Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the onetime heir-apparent to the Sinaloa cartel, was arrested on charges brought in Chicago and eventually agreed to cooperate against his father and other cartel leaders.
Zambada-Niebla, nicknamed “Vicentillo,” admitted playing a key role in trafficking thousands of pounds of cocaine and heroin into the U.S. using speedboats, submarines and jumbo jets. He had faced up to life in prison, but was sentenced to 15 years in 2019 after then-U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo credited him for what prosecutors had called his “unrivaled” cooperation.
Known for his flashy lifestyle and hard partying, Zambada-Niebla was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2009 after the Flores twins — who were among the cartel’s biggest drug distributors — made recordings of Zambada-Niebla talking about massive drug shipments, obtaining grenades and explosives, and even attacking government buildings in Mexico in retaliation against law enforcement.
“El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. in 2019.
Another son of Zambada’s, Ismael Zambada Imperial, pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in San Diego in 2021 to being a leader in the Sinaloa cartel.
Meanwhile, in recent years, Guzman’s sons have lead a faction of the cartel known as the little Chapos, or “Chapitos” that has been identified as one of the main exporters of fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid, to the U.S. market.
One of them, Ovidio Guzmán López, was arrested and extradited to the U.S. last year. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago in September and is being held without bond.
Rumors were rampant Friday that Lopez had been mysteriously released from custody just days before his brother’s arrest. But while the U.S. Bureau of Prisons web site does show Lopez was “released” on Tuesday, his lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told the Tribune he had been moved to another facility after complaining of the draconian conditions in solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
“Ovidio is still in custody,” Lichtman said.
Guzman Lopez was among 28 reputed members of the notorious Sinaloa cartel charged as part of a multijurisdictional fentanyl-trafficking investigation unveiled in April by Garland, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors, including acting Chicago U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual.
In outlining the charges, Garland described the violence of the Sinaloa cartel and how its members have tortured perceived enemies, including Mexican law enforcement officials. In some cases, cartel members also have fed victims, some still alive, to tigers owned by Guzmán’s sons, Garland said.
The superseding Chicago indictment, which was filed under seal in January 2023, alleged Guzman Lopez assumed day-to-day control of the cartel after his father’s arrest in 2016. The indictment accuses the sons of orchestrating the shipment of thousands of pounds of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs into the U.S. by rail, road and through tunnels and other means.
The sons allegedly furthered the conspiracy by bribing public officials and using guns and other dangerous weapons to commit violence, including murder, kidnapping, and assault “against law enforcement, rival drug traffickers and members of their own trafficking organization,” the indictment alleged.
Guzman’s other sons charged in Chicago, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, remain at large as of Friday.
For Peter and Margarito Flores, seeing all the attention on El Mayo now is somewhat ironic, since they said they tried to tell authorities more information about him during their cooperation, but they seemed disinterested.
“He wasn’t the target. The prize was Chapo,” Margarito Flores said. “Once the government focuses on their prize, that’s it. They’re not really looking as much at who’s right next to him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
