Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez told reporters Friday that a small plane carrying Zambada, 76, and Guzmán, about 37, took off from Hermosillo airport in northern Sonora state just before 8 a.m. Thursday and landed at around 10 a.m. in El Paso, where the men were promptly arrested.
The U.S. Embassy didn’t notify Mexican authorities of the operation until 3:30 p.m. local time, Rodríguez said. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wasn’t informed until 4:14 p.m.
“We are awaiting official communication on whether what happened yesterday was a capture or surrender,” Rodríguez said during López Obrador’s daily news conference. “This is part of what the U.S. government must tell us.”
Zambada, a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, was fooled into boarding the U.S.-bound private plane with Guzmán, a son of imprisoned cartel co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, according to a Department of Homeland Security official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation.
Zambada and the elder Guzmán, who is serving a sentence of life plus 30 years in the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo., led one of the world’s most prolific drug cartels, exporting tons of heroin, cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs. The Biden administration has targeted the cartel as it tries to combat the most deadly drug epidemic in history.
Rodríguez was peppered by reporters Friday on why Mexico wasn’t told in advance about such a critical operation. Zambada also faces arrest warrants in Mexico.
Rodríguez insisted that cooperation with Washington against the illegal drug trade is strong.
“We are going to continue cooperating with the U.S. government, as we have done up until this event,” she said.
Miroff reported from Washington. Lorena Rios in Monterrey, Mexico, contributed to this report.