Mexico issues arrest warrant for Joaquín Guzmán López over kidnapping of Sinaloa Cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ Zambada

Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is the main suspect in the kidnapping that led to the capture of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on U.S. soil in July, the Mexico Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) announced Wednesday. The FGR stated that an arrest warrant has been issued against Guzmán López for the crimes of kidnapping and treason. In an unexpected twist, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office gave credibility to a letter published by El Mayo regarding his arrest and the murder of Héctor Cuén, a Sinaloa politician for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) while dismissing the version of events provided by state authorities regarding the homicide. “The Prosecutor’s Office itself located the property where the probable crimes of illegal deprivation of liberty, homicides, injuries, and acts linked to forced disappearance were carried out, in which the aggression that led to the death of Hector ‘N’ [Cuén] is linked,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

On August 10, El Mayo claimed that Guzmán López — his godson — had betrayed him with the intention of handing him over to U.S. authorities. The alleged ambush took place after the drug lord was summoned to a meeting with Los Chapitos, the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by El Chapo’s sons, Cuén, and the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya. Zambada said he greeted Cuén, whom he referred to as a “longtime friend,” at the Huertos del Pedregal ranch on the outskirts of Culiacán, hours before he was arrested in the United States. “They killed him at the same time and in the same place where they kidnapped me,” said the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office, on the other hand, maintained that the politician died in an attempted robbery of his pickup truck when he stopped to fill up at a gas station in the state capital. “If they said I was going to be there, they lied, and if he believed them, he fell into the trap,” said Rocha hours after the letter was published while denying having any links to organized crime.

The FGR stated that the sites where the kidnapping is believed to have taken place had already been secured, as well as the vehicles that were used, and released photographs of the crime scene. The statement does not mention that the place is the Huertos del Pedregal ranch, nor does it detail any specific location. The judicial authorities, however, rejected the version of the state prosecutor’s office regarding Cuén’s murder. “The federal institution has managed to establish, with precision, that the information about what happened at a gas station in the municipality of Culiacán is not acceptable, nor does it have the reliable elements of proof that allow it to be taken into account in the way it was presented,” they stated.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office denounced last Thursday that the state Attorney General’s investigation into the murder of Cuén, a former rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and founder of his own political movement, the Sinaloa Party (PAS), was plagued with irregularities. The FGR stated that there were errors in the autopsy, that the crime scene had not been secured, and that there were inconsistencies in the video presented early last week to support the robbery theory as the main motive for the crime. Sinaloa’s prosecutor, Sara Bruna Quiñonez, presented her “voluntary resignation” last Friday, the day after the statement was released. President Andrés Manuel Lépez Obrador has endorsed the findings of the FGR, which took over the case last week.

In another development in the investigations, the FGR said it had identified “with complete precision” the runway from which the plane on which El Mayo and Guzmán López flew to the United States on July 25 took off. The authorities did not reveal the exact location of the site but did share photographs showing the dirt runway and a small plane, although no further context is given for the images. It is known, from information shared by the United States, that it is in Sinaloa and not in Sonora, as initially stated.

Rocha, the state governor, said in an interview that he had already shared information with the Attorney General’s Office about his trip to California, his alibi for the day of El Mayo’s capture and the murder of Cuén, his main political adversary. Rocha insisted that he was on vacation and delved into the details that motivated his departure from Sinaloa, in a private plane belonging to businessman Jesus Vizcarra, according to the flight log that was leaked to the media. Deputies of the opposition National Action Party have filed a complaint before the FGR against Rocha for hindering the investigations into Cuén’s death. Rocha dismissed the complaint and said it was politically motivated.

“The federal ministerial and police investigations will continue until the corresponding files are duly integrated,” the FGR said. The statement gives the appearance of a drastic change of course in the investigations. El Mayo published his letter the day after the United States provided its official version of events, which stated “Guzmán López turned himself in” and El Mayo was taken against his will. That Zambada was kidnapped by his former partner remains the main hypothesis behind his unexpected capture at a rural New Mexico airport four weeks ago.

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