It sounded like a story ripped from a narco thriller: One of the biggest drug lords in Mexico was lured onto an airplane, flown across the border and presented to American federal agents by the son of his former partner in crime.
As improbable as it may seem, that is exactly what appears to have happened on Thursday evening, when a Beechcraft King Air turboprop landed at a small municipal airport outside El Paso, and off stepped one of the most wanted men in Mexico: Ismael Zambada García, a founder of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel.
Mr. Zambada García, known as El Mayo, had for decades evaded capture by both Mexican and American officials, living a life of luxurious simplicity in the mountains of Sinaloa — despite the $15 million U.S. bounty on his head.
But in the end, U.S. officials said, he was betrayed by an unlikely foe: a son of his closest criminal ally, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the infamous drug lord known as El Chapo, who is now serving a life sentence in an American federal prison.
Persons:
Ismael Zambada García, Zambada García, Sinaloa —, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, El Chapo
Organizations:
Beechcraft King Air
Locations:
Mexico, El Paso, Sinaloa, El Mayo, U.S