MEXICO CITY听–听Mexico is now investigating two drug lords arrested in the United States last month for their involvement in a slew of alleged crimes committed in their home country in order to get them stateside, federal authorities said on Sunday.
US authorities captured Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Mr. Zambada’s former partner Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, 聽near El Paso, Texas.
The two have given differing accounts of how they ended up on a plane bound for the small-town airstrip, with Mr. Zambada saying on Saturday聽聽by El Chapo’s son and ambushed.
Guzman, who is about 38 years old, meanwhile,聽聽and called the handover a voluntary surrender after extended negotiations between the two drug traffickers and the U.S. government.
Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office said in a statement on Sunday that the crimes committed along the way could include murder, kidnapping and unlawful detainment of a person,聽illicit聽use of a flight, illicit use of aerospace facilities as well as immigration and customs violations.
Mexican authorities聽did not directly charge Mr. Zambada and Mr. Guzman on Sunday, but rather said the alleged crimes were part of the investigation the two were involved in.
Mr. Zambada, who is in his late seventies, on Saturday claimed in a statement sent by his lawyer聽迟丑补迟听聽with Guzman in the state of Sinaloa, the cartel’s heartland.
Sinaloa officials including Governor Ruben Rocha, and Hector Cuen, who had recently been elected as federal lawmaker for the upcoming congressional period, were also supposed to be present at the meet-up on a ranch聽outside Sinaloa’s聽state capital Culiacan, Mr. Zambada said.
搁辞肠丑补听said on Saturday that聽he was not in Mexico when the meeting occurred, while according to Mr. Zambada, Mr.聽Cuen was killed at the ranch.
Sinaloa authorities had previously said that Mr. Cuen was believed to have been killed in a carjacking at a Culiacan gas station.
The federal attorney general’s office on Sunday聽said Rocha would be asked聽to speak to state investigators, while it also requested to bring the state’s investigation into Mr. Cuen’s death under federal purview.
The office added that it had searched the ranch and a nearby landing strip which could have been used to take Mr. Zambada and Mr. Guzman to the US, as well as the airport outside El Paso. – Reuters
