Why Mexico was left in the dark about the arrest of the Sinaloa Cartel’s top leaders

Days after the surprise arrest on U.S. soil of two of Mexico’s most wanted fugitives, details of what exactly happened remain unclear.

Among those wondering how the powerful drug traffickers ended up handcuffed at a private airport outside El Paso is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who said this week that U.S. authorities had kept his government in the dark about the operation.

“We need more information,” he said. “We need them to tell the truth.”

The president has been heavily criticized for being blindsided by the arrest of Sinaloa Cartel leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García and Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of notorious drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Mexican authorities say they were only alerted to the operation after the two suspects were arrested on July 25. They say they are still unsure whether the account of the incident given by Zambada’s lawyer — that the 76-year-old Zambada was kidnapped by Guzmán López and turned over to U.S. authorities — is actually true.

That Mexican officials remain so ignorant about a major law enforcement operation carried out by an ally against two of their nationals underscores how much security cooperation between the two countries has deteriorated under López Obrador, who has fiercely defended Mexican sovereignty and frequently criticized U.S. officials for overstepping their authority on Mexican soil.

Trust between the nations has been shaky since 2020, when former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on drug trafficking charges. López Obrador, who said he had not been informed of the investigation, convinced the Trump administration to send Cienfuegos back to Mexico, where he was released — and later awarded a top military decoration by the president.

The Cienfuegos case, in which López Obrador labeled the US evidence as “junk,” strained US-Mexico relations.

Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration complain that their work in Mexico is being hampered by local authorities. U.S. officials also complain that Mexico is not doing enough to combat fentanyl trafficking and have criticized López Obrador for falsely insisting that the synthetic opioid is not produced in Mexico.

López Obrador, meanwhile, accused the U.S. government of “espionage” and “abusive interference” after the DEA announced it had infiltrated the Sinaloa cartel faction known as Los Chapitos, alleged ringleaders who are the sons of the imprisoned El Chapo and specialize in smuggling fentanyl.

Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, a researcher at the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, said there was “very little bilateral work” between the two countries, despite a recently renegotiated plan for security cooperation. Press releases touting cross-border law enforcement cooperation were, she said, largely for show.

“What’s happening at the operational level has been very empty,” she said.

For many Mexicans, the reason behind the U.S. silence on the recent case is humiliating but understandable: U.S. officials simply do not trust their Mexican counterparts in a country where cartels control large swaths of the country and have been bribing local police officers, mayors and top officials for years.

“The gringos would not trust the Mexican government for an operation so delicate, historic and sensitive,” columnist Carlos Marín wrote in the Mexican newspaper Milenio. Mocking the Mexican investigation into the case, Marín continued: “What is the Attorney General of the Republic going to do … request the extradition of the American agents who planned and carried out this very unique feat?”

A long string of lawsuits against corrupt Mexican law enforcement officials demonstrates the reason behind the lack of trust in Washington.

The most sensational example is that of Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former security chief and former face of the war on drugs, who was convicted last year in the US District Court in Brooklyn for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.

Derek Maltz, former director of the DEA’s special operations division, said he was not aware of any information about the arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López, but he was not surprised that Mexican officials said they had been left out of the information.

“It’s a very sensitive situation,” Maltz said. “We know the Mexican government is super corrupt and we know that high-level operations have been compromised for years.”

Maltz noted how Zambada’s former partner, “El Chapo” Guzmán, slipped through the hands of law enforcement for years after U.S. officials shared detailed information about his location with their Mexican counterparts.

“We called him Houdini,” Maltz said. “He escaped every attempt at the last minute. It was clear they were on the payroll. Nothing has changed. Mexican officials are on the payroll and are constantly monitoring U.S. law enforcement to catch the ringleaders.”

Maltz said that even with the near misses and suspected leaks, there was little U.S. agents could do because they were operating in a foreign country. Guzmán was eventually captured by Mexican special forces in 2016, extradited and sentenced to life in a U.S. prison.

What exactly happened on July 25 remains unclear and intriguing.

What is clear is that Zambada and Guzmán López were aboard a plane that took off from somewhere in Mexico and landed Thursday at a small airport in rural New Mexico, just across the Texas border from El Paso. U.S. officials initially said Zambada had been tricked into boarding the plane. But Zambada’s lawyer later alleged that Guzmán López had forced Zambada aboard and tied him up, effectively kidnapping him.

There has been speculation in Mexico that Guzmán López wanted to extradite the older, rival capo in hopes of clemency for himself and his younger brother, Ovidio, who is also in federal custody in the United States on drug-smuggling charges. But Guzmán López’s lawyer told reporters in Chicago on Tuesday that his client has no deal with federal prosecutors.

“You’re asking if it was a delivery, if it was a capture,” Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Mexico’s security secretary, told reporters. “That’s part of the investigation and part of the information that we would expect from the United States government.”

Linthicum and McDonnell reported from Mexico City, Hamilton from San Francisco. Times staff writer Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.