Alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader and co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, a.k.a. El Mayo, has been arrested.
Multiple federal agencies commented on the arrests of both El Mayo and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son to El Chapo, on Thursday, including the Department of Justice. In a statement, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland called the Sinaloa Cartel "one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world" when confirming the Texas arrests.
"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.
Fentanyl was also at the center of a separate statement from Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, who connected the arrests to a larger policy stance within the Biden-Harris Administration.
"The Sinaloa Cartel pioneered the manufacture of fentanyl and has for years trafficked it into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and devastating countless communities," Mayorkas said on Thursday.
Both men are now facing charges here in the States in connection with alleged fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking. The arrests follow similar fates in recent years for other Sinaloa leaders including El Chapo himself and another one of his sons. Per DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, Joaquin Guzman Lopez and his brothers, the Chapitos, "took control" of the organization following El Chapo’s extradition to the States in 2017.
As pointed out in a report from Texas outlet WFAA, DEA officials had put up a potential reward of as much as $15 million for information on El Mayo prior to this week’s El Paso arrest.
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