Feed MRSS-S joaquin_guzman_lopez_a

Mexico kills Nemesio Oseguera, ‘El Mencho,’ the world’s most wanted drug lord

Pablo Ferri — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 18:48:47 GMT

The Mexican military killed Rubén Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho,” the most wanted and dangerous drug trafficker in the world, this weekend in the state of Jalisco, in central Mexico, according to official sources who confirmed the information to EL PAÍS. The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the country’s most significant criminal group, Oseguera headed a criminal enterprise with countless tentacles — more powerful than any other, violent and aggressive in its business practices, and primarily linked to drug trafficking. Although authorities have not yet provided many details, El Mencho was brought down in an operation in the mountains of Jalisco, where he had operated freely for decades, protected by his criminal ranks.

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US role in kidnapping of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada by Los Chapitos placed under scrutiny

Andrés Rodríguez — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 11:08:10 GMT

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was a living legend of organized crime in Mexico, and also a ghost. From Sinaloa, he transformed his cartel into a multi-billion dollar international empire generated by trafficking cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and other illicit drugs. Despite a $15 million bounty on his head, he remained a fugitive for more than 50 years, until his arrest in July 2024. The backstory to his surprise detention at the Santa Teresa airport in El Paso, Texas, alongside Joaquín Guzmán López — son of his former partner Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — was the subject of rumors and speculation until Monday, when Guzmán López, upon pleading guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and organized crime in Chicago, admitted to kidnapping the 77-year-old drug lord and handing him over to U.S. authorities. Guzmán López’s testimony raises several questions and puts the United States’ involvement in the operation under scrutiny. This is despite the White House’s denial of any participation in events and the insistence by both the previous and current Mexican governments that Washington must provide answers.

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Mexico awarded 190 public contracts to a network linked to Los Chapitos even after US sanctions

Beatriz Guillén — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 10:38:56 GMT

On May 9, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury targeted the company Sumilab for supplying chemical precursors to the Sinaloa Cartel. It was sanctioned in the same round as Joaquín “El Güero” Guzmán López, the son of convicted drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reported that both had been sanctioned for having engaged in activities or transactions that “materially contributed to [...] the international proliferation of illicit drugs.”

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A year of terror in Sinaloa: Inside the war between Los Chapitos and Los Mayos in Mexico’s drug heartland

Pablo Ferri ,Marcos Vizcarra,Mónica González Islas — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

When the war came to Culiacán, the city had sensed it for weeks. Everyone expected it to fall on a Thursday: it was a local joke, even at the home of Heidy Mares and her family — daughter, sister, mother, all living under the same roof — who had etched in their memory the fateful Thursdays of recent times: the Culiacanazo, the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, the kidnapping of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada… All those Thursdays also shared the tremendous violence of local armed groups linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, the major drug-producing and exporting machine in northern Mexico.

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Methodology

To collect data on violence in Sinaloa, newspaper records were gathered and on-the-ground reporting was conducted in the state.

Information on disappearances was compiled from missing-person reports created and published by the collectives Sabuesos Guerreras, Rastreadoras El Fuerte, Por las Voces sin Justicia, Madres en Lucha and the Attorney General's Office of Sinaloa, as well as the State Search Commission and Amber Alert Sinaloa.

Coordination:

Guiomar del Ser, Kiko Llaneras and Brenda Valverde

Design:

Ruth Benito y Mónica Juárez

Data:

Marcos Vizcarra

Development:

Carlos Muñoz

Infographics:

Patricia San Juan and José A. Álvarez

Visual editing:

Gladys Serrano and Mónica González Islas

‘El Mayo’ Zambada’s $15 billion forfeiture: A difficult bounty to collect

Carlos Carabaña — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 11:35:47 GMT

An astronomical $15 billion. That’s the sum Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada has agreed to hand over to the United States as part of his guilty plea on charges of racketeering and running a continuing criminal enterprise as the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel. An amount that seems unlikely to actually materialize. With the case set for sentencing in early January 2026, the septuagenarian Zambada also accepted a deal to spend the remainder of his life in prison and to reveal all his assets to the courts. Experts consulted believe this is a message for other targets: it’s better to surrender than to be captured.

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‘El Mayo’ Zambada and the drug empire that benefited from corruption in Mexico: Keys to the US accusation against the Sinaloa Cartel leader

Zedryk Raziel — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 10:17:59 GMT

For the United States, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was “a principal leader of a continuing criminal enterprise” known as the Sinaloa Cartel. In addition to the alias El Mayo, he was known by the nickname Doc, according to one of the several accusations filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office against the drug lord, who pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and directing a drug trafficking criminal enterprise. Washington maintains that the Sinaloa Cartel had operated at least since the 1990s thanks to the corruption of Mexican police officials, politicians, and judges. Zambada himself admitted this claim in his hearing in federal court in New York, where he said that he had indeed paid bribes to security officials and politicians, although he did not name any names, nor will he, according to the drug lord’s defense team.

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Sinaloa Cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ Zambada to plead guilty in the United States

Pablo Ferri — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:11:55 GMT

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada will plead guilty before the United States justice system in a hearing initially scheduled for next Monday in New York. One of the historical leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, Zambada has been imprisoned in the U.S. since July 2024, when he was arrested at an airfield a few miles north of the Mexican border. The alleged drug trafficker has claimed that former allies kidnapped him in Sinaloa and took him to the neighboring country without his consent.

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Trump softens hardline death penalty stance in cases against Mexican cartel leaders

Luis Pablo Beauregard — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 11:37:35 GMT

The appetizer was Genaro García Luna, the former “super cop” who was sentenced in October to 38 years in prison for organized crime. The U.S. justice system is now preparing to sink its teeth into the main course: the 29 drug lords handed over by the Mexican government to Donald Trump in the early days of his administration.

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US rules out death penalty against ‘El Mayo’ Zambada

Luis Pablo Beauregard — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 10:15:35 GMT

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the drug lord with a thousand lives, will be able to extend his legend in the United States. Despite his spectacular downfall, betrayed and handed over by his godson, the 77-year-old capo will spend the last days of his life in a U.S. prison cell. Donald Trump’s Department of Justice officially announced Tuesday that it will not seek the death penalty against one of the historic leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel. Rafael Caro Quintero and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Viceroy,” other prominent drug lords recently handed over to Washington by Mexican authorities, will receive the same benefit, which points to a pact between prosecutors and defense attorneys to reach plea agreements.

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‘El Mayo’ Zambada: The fall of the shadowy leader of the Sinaloa Cartel who sparked the Culiacán war

Marcos Vizcarra,Pablo Ferri — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 14:52:42 GMT

Until a year ago, Huertos del Pedregal was a place of parties and living the dream. This private development in northern Culiacán, Sinaloa, had about 20 rural lots, at least half of which were rented out for gatherings of all kinds. Fireworks were common in the skies every weekend, and residents reported excessive noise from live music and, occasionally, even gunshots in the air. “Now no one comes,” says Ana Becerra, a resident who rented out her lot for celebrations. “The venues are deserted, and we’re not recovering, even if we lower the price.”

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Under pressure and close to a deal with the United States: The Chapo Guzmán family’s multiple legal fronts

Micaela Varela — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:23:04 GMT

The Guzmán family, the ruling dynasty of drug trafficking in Sinaloa, is weakening under the judicial siege of the United States. The recent crossing of 17 family members into U.S. territory, along with the imminent guilty plea of the youngest son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán— the family patriarch, who is serving a life sentence in the U.S. —signals their decline.

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Mexico and the United States decimate Los Chapitos

Alejandro Santos — Fri, 30 May 2025 08:38:58 GMT

Los Chapitos have become an endangered species. Only a few of their top bosses — the very ones immortalized in corridos for a few pesos or whose initials adorn caps sold on the streets of Culiacán — are still standing. Imprisoned, killed, extradited to the U.S., or voluntarily surrendered to U.S. authorities as part of plea deals to reduce sentences, the Sinaloa Cartel faction is rapidly vanishing.

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US will not seek death penalty in trial of El Chapo’s son Joaquín Guzmán López

Luis Pablo Beauregard — Wed, 28 May 2025 06:38:35 GMT

The United States government on Tuesday informed Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, that it will not seek the death penalty in the case against him in the Eastern District Court of Illinois. In July 2024, Guzmán López was at the center of one of the most significant recent events in Mexican drug trafficking when he arrived in U.S. territory by plane alongside the kingpin of kingpins, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. After being arrested, Guzmán López pleaded not guilty to the five federal charges against him.

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