MEXICO CITY — Key pillars of the Trump administration’s policy toward Mexico involve large-scale deportations and a crackdown on cartels.
But reports in the Mexican media suggest that U.S. authorities recently orchestrated the secret, cross-border move of at least 17 relatives of Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpin — Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán [In U.S. custody]
, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel — to California.
On Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, clearly frustrated, said U.S. authorities had
failed to notify their Mexican counterparts of what appeared to be a highly choreographed operation by Washington to transport the drug lord’s extended family across the border from Tijuana to San Diego.
“We are doing our work” to fight drug trafficking, Sheinbaum said. “The issue is: What information is out there and how do they [U.S. officials] explain this?
They have to give information.”
*snip*
The current whereabouts of the El Chapo relatives could not be determined. It was unclear whether they were under some form of protective custody.
In Mexico, security experts say, El Chapo’s relatives could be vulnerable to the violence associated with a civil war raging within the Sinaloa cartel.
*snip*
The Justice Department has not explained why Mexico apparently
was not notified of the operation to move El Chapo’s extended family across the border. It is unclear whether the decision was an oversight or a
deliberate omission out of fear that news of the move would be leaked to criminal elements in Mexico.
This is Mexico - from earlier in the article:
Guzmán López was initially arrested in a 2019 military raid that sparked gun battles
paralyzing the city of Culiacán, prompting then-
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to
order him freed in a bid to end the violence. He was rearrested in 2023 in a second bloody operation that left at least 29 dead, including 10 Mexican soldiers.
Back on track -
The case against Guzmán López is part of a wide-ranging U.S. effort to take down the Sinaloa gang, which is considered
Mexico’s most extensive criminal organization. The Sinaloa cartel is one of
six in Mexico that the Trump administration has designated as
foreign terrorist organizations.
*snip*
There has been widespread speculation in the Mexican press that the two jailed brothers may seek a plea deal and possibly agree to testify against
Ismael Zambada García [who is now in U.S. custody], a co-founder, with El Chapo [who is in U.S. custody], of the notorious Sinaloa cartel.
Zambada has said he was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López in the summer and flown into the custody of U.S. agents outside El Paso.
Mexican authorities say they too were blindsided by that sensational operation, which Mexican authorities say was probably orchestrated by U.S. agents. Zambada is reportedly in plea negotiations with U.S. authorities to avoid a potential death penalty.
His arrest has sparked a bloody turf war splitting the Sinaloa cartel. Backers of Zambada are fighting supporters of El Chapo’s sons, known as Los Chapitos, for control of the notorious organization. Two of El Chapo’s other sons are both fugitives who have remained in Mexico and avoided arrest while assuming their father’s legacy of running the cartel, authorities say.
Mexican news reports suggest the U.S. recently orchestrated the secret, cross-border move of at least 17 relatives of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to California.
www.latimes.com
