Mexico is investigating two drug lords arrested in the United States last month for their alleged involvement in a series of crimes committed in their home countries to bring them to the United States, federal authorities said Sunday.
U.S. authorities arrested Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the founders of the Sinaloa Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Zambada's former partner Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a surprise arrest late last month near El Paso, Texas.
The two gave differing accounts of how they got on the plane to the small town's airstrip, and Zambada said Saturday (Aug. 10) that he was tricked by El Chapo's son and ambushed.
Guzman, 38, denied taking Zambada by force and called the handover a voluntary surrender after lengthy negotiations between the two drug lords and the U.S. government.
Mexico's Federal Attorney General's Office said in a statement Sunday that crimes committed during the trip could include murder, kidnapping and unlawful detention of a person, illegal use of aviation, illegal use of space facilities and immigration and customs violations.
Mexican authorities did not directly charge Zambada and Guzman on Sunday, but said the alleged crimes were part of an investigation involving the two.
Zambada, who is in his late 70s, claimed Saturday in a statement sent by his lawyer that he was persuaded to meet Guzman in Sinaloa state, the heart of the cartel.
Sinaloa officials including Gov. Ruben Rocha, and Hector Cuen, who was recently elected as a federal lawmaker for the upcoming congressional term, were also supposed to be present at the meeting at a ranch outside the Sinaloa state capital, Culiacan, Zambada said.
Rocha said Saturday that he was not in Mexico when the meeting took place, while Zambada said Cuen had been killed at a ranch.
Sinaloa authorities previously said Cuen was believed to have died in a carjacking at a Culiacan gas station.
The federal attorney general's office said Sunday that Rocha would be asked to speak to state investigators, and also asked that the state probe into Cuen's death be placed under federal purview.
The office added that it had searched nearby ranches and airstrips that could have been used to bring Zambada and Guzman to the US, as well as airports outside El Paso. (about/after)
