Two top leaders of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most dominant criminal groups in Mexico, have surrendered to American law enforcement and are in custody in the United States, according to four people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The two operatives, Ismael Zambada García and Joaquín Guzmán López, are among the most powerful drug traffickers in Mexico and command massive transnational cocaine and fentanyl businesses that move narcotics into the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Both men were in custody in El Paso, Texas.
Mr. Zambada García, who is known as “El Mayo,” has been pursued by the U.S. government for years and has been charged in several federal indictments stretching back more than two decades.
He has never been imprisoned, unlike his top ally, Joaquin Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo, who was extradited to the United States, convicted in Brooklyn federal court in 2019 and sentenced to life in prison on drug conspiracy charges.
,
Mr. Guzmán López is the son of El Chapo and is said to have been elevated to a leadership role in the cartel along with his brothers after the extradition of his father to the United States in 2017. His brother Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the United States in September.
