Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ says he was ambushed and kidnapped before being taken to US
- The cartel leader says he was invited by El Chapo’s son to a meeting with local politicians, but instead ended up in a hood and handcuffs
Mexican drug cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada said that he was ambushed and kidnapped when he thought he was going to meet the governor of the northern state of Sinaloa, and then taken against his will to the United States, according to a letter released on Saturday by his lawyer.
In the two-page letter, Zambada said that fellow drug lord Joaquín Guzmán López asked him to attend a meeting on July 25 with local politicians, including Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, from the ruling Morena party.
But before any meeting took place, he was led into a room where he was knocked down, a hood was placed over his head, he was handcuffed, and then taken in a pickup truck to a landing strip where he was forced into a private plane that finally took him and Guzmán López, one of the sons of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to US soil, according to the letter.
Zambada’s comments were released a day after the US ambassador to Mexico confirmed that the drug lord was brought to the United States against his will when he arrived in Texas in July on a plane along with Guzmán López.
After Zambada’s comments, which raised question about links between drug traffickers and some politicians in Sinaloa, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked reporters “to wait to get more information” and to hear the governor’s version.
The governor’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Saturday. When the arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López were announced, Rocha told local media that he was in Los Angeles that day.
