Cartel Leaders Face Extradition Amid Investigation

United States – Mexico is now seeking to extradite two drug lords nabbed in the United States last month on multiple charges of criminal activities in Mexico committed with the goal of getting them into the US, federal officials said on Sunday.

Arrest and Extradition Efforts

Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, Sinaloa Cartel co-founder, and his former business associate Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Lopez’s son were arrested by U. S authorities late last month near El Paso, Texas, as reported by Reuters.

Both have provided conflicting narrations about how they found themselves on a plane heading to the small town airstrip, with Zambada claiming he was deceived by El Chapo’s son and shot at.

Conflicting Narratives of Arrest

As for Guzman, who is believed to be around 38 years old, has denied that he kidnapped Zambada, stating that handover was an act of voluntary surrender after protracted negotiations between both drug lords and the U. S. authorities.

According to a statement by the federal attorney general’s office in Mexico on Sunday, the crimes committing on the way may refer to murder, kidnapping, and unlawful detaining a person, illicit use of flight, illicit use of aerospace facilities, besides immigration and customs violations.

The Mexican authorities did not specifically indict Zambada and Guzman on Sunday but announced that the supposed offenses were a part of the probe in which the two were implicated.

Zambada, now in his late seventies, on Saturday, released a statement through his lawyer stating that he was invited for a meeting with Guzman in the cartel’s stronghold of Sinaloa.

Statement and Alleged Meeting

State governor Ruben Rocha and Hector Cuen, who was elected federal legislator for the next congressional term, were also expected to attend a gathering on a ranch outside Sinaloa’s state capital Culiacan, Zambada claimed.

While Zambada claimed that Cuen was killed at the ranch, Rocha stated on Saturday that he was not in Mexico at the time of the meeting.

Federal Investigation into Cuen’s Death

Cuen’s death was initially reported by Sinaloa officials to have resulted from a carjacking at a gas station in Culiacan.

On Sunday, the federal attorney general’s office announced that Rocha would be contacted by state investigators and asked to have the state’s Cuen death case taken under federal jurisdiction, as reported by Reuters.

The office also stated that it had searched the airport outside of El Paso, the ranch, and a neighboring landing strip that could have been used to transport Zambada and Guzman to the United States.