Prosecutors in Mexico are considering criminal charges for anyone who helped hand over the drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to the United States. In July, the Justice Department arrested Joaquin Guzman Lopez — Sinaloa cartel co-founder and El Chapo’s son — and Zambada after their plane landed at a small airport in New Mexico.
Guzman and Zambada are both leaders of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel. Guzman allegedly wanted to turn himself in, while Zambada said he was taken against his will.
The Mexican Attorney General’s office announced it’s considering charges for Guzman and anyone else who helped turn over “El Mayo.
The charges include “illegal flight, illicit use of airports, immigration and customs violations, kidnapping, treason and any other crimes that may apply.”
In Mexico, there’s an added meaning to its treason statute, it includes anyone who “illegally abducts a person in Mexico in order to hand them over to authorities of another country.”
According to the AP, that clause was added after someone kidnapped a doctor who was responsible for the torture and killing of a DEA agent in 1985, handing him over the to the United States.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador agreed with the decision to open a criminal investigation into Zambada’s arrest.
“[Zambada’s arrest] could have been an operation of the U.S. Department of Justice, and they must provide an explanation because we will find out anyway,” Lopez Obrador said at a press conference.
President Lopez Obrador has previously said he opposes U.S. intervention in Mexico. He also said the arrest could be part of a plot to smear him. This is the same president who has a “hugs not bullets” policy for fighting drug cartels.
“Why don’t they change that policy in the United States,” Lopez Obrador questioned. “Why do they think that arresting one famous drug lord — or two, or three or ten — is going to solve their [drug abuse] problem?”
Mexico’s president and Mexican prosecutors are expressing their disapproval of the operation after Zambada’s lawyer released a letter the drug lord wrote from prison that stated he was ambushed, kidnapped and taken to the United States against his will.
Those are serious accusations coming from a man who had a $15 million bounty on his head and faces murder, kidnapping and trafficking charges.
Zambada has already made two court appearances in the United States, he’s scheduled to make a third on Sept. 9. He’s being held without bond.
