Cartel wars, El Chapo’s sons, a mysterious kidnapping and an extraordinary U.S. indictment

The indictment is remarkable in its detail, laying out a web of corruption at the highest levels of the Mexican government.

At the center, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, is Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, accused of allowing his state’s eponymous cartel to operate with impunity after its leaders guaranteed his election by sending gunmen to intimidate rival candidates, steal ballots and threaten voters at the polls.

Rocha Moya, who maintained he’d done nothing wrong as he took leave as governor this month to address the charges, is allegedly in league with “Los Chapitos,” a cartel faction led by four sons of the infamous Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

While prosecutors in the Southern District of New York described damning evidence, the indictment was equally notable for all that was not mentioned. One name in particular was conspicuously absent: Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime partner of El Chapo with a reputation as the Sinaloa cartel’s most powerful godfather.

The charges against Rocha Moya and nine other current and former Sinaloan officials have roiled Mexican politics and heightened scrutiny of the cases of Zambada and two Chapitos already in U.S. custody.

Beyond a ledger of monthly bribe payments to top Sinaloan officials that prosecutors said was “recovered from Mexico” during the investigation, the indictment appeared to rely on evidence that had to have been obtained through extraordinary surveillance — or from people intimately familiar with Los Chapitos.

Many cartel leaders, feeling the heat from U.S. authorities, have turned on one another in recent years — and the latest case has left questions hanging about whether further betrayals are yet to come. Two sons of El Chapo remain fugitives, though there is talk they may strike a deal to avoid the fate of being killed or captured.

Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya, left, attends an event in Mexico City on April 17. Rocha Moya was charged this month by U.S. authorities with being corrupted by the Sinaloa cartel. He has denied the allegations.

(Luis Barron / Eyepix Group / Sipa USA via AP)

Some suspect the chain of events that led to the recent charges began nearly two years ago, when a private jet arrived at a small New Mexico airport carrying three people.

One was Zambada, a septuagenarian kingpin with so many judges, generals and politicians in his pocket that he was able to avoid spending a single night in jail in a criminal career that stretched back to the 1970s. The others on board were the pilot and Joaquín Guzmán López, a 39-year-old son of El Chapo and Zambada’s godson.

According to Zambada’s version of what transpired, told through a statement issued by his lawyer, he was ambushed and kidnapped by Guzmán López, who lured him to a villa on the outskirts of Sinaloa’s capital, Culiacán, where he expected to mediate a dispute between Rocha Moya and another Sinaloan politician.

Rocha Moya claims his name was used as bait. The governor has denied any knowledge of the plot and has an alibi that he was traveling to Los Angeles that day. Zambada only described seeing the other politician, who he said was gunned down at the scene.

Zambada said Guzmán López forced him onto the plane and then delivered him to FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents waiting on the New Mexico tarmac.

Zambada pleaded guilty in August to charges he co-founded the Sinaloa cartel and trafficked thousands of tons of drugs. Appearing in a Brooklyn federal courtroom, he said his business relied on “paying bribes to police and military commanders and to politicians so they would allow us to operate freely.”

It was long speculated that Guzmán López had snatched Zambada in hopes of currying favor with U.S. authorities. That theory was confirmed when he reached a plea agreement in December in the U.S. District Court in Chicago.

At the time of his surrender, Guzmán López faced a raft of U.S. federal charges, which could have carried a life sentence. By cooperating, he will serve far less time — a minimum of 10 years, according to a transcript of his plea hearing reviewed by The Times.

Joaquín Guzmán López, a 39-year-old son of the Sinaloa cartel leader known as “El Chapo,” was arrested on July 25, 2024, in New Mexico, along with his godfather, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

(Associated Press)

His plea agreement said U.S. authorities “did not request, induce, sanction, approve or condone the kidnapping” of Zambada, referred to as “Individual A.” The agreement said Guzmán López acted “in the hopes of receiving cooperation credit.”

At his plea hearing in Chicago, he told the judge he had studied finance in college before joining his brothers in the drug trade. He said he was taking medication for anxiety and depression.

“He’s only in the business because his brothers are bullies,” said one law enforcement source familiar with his case not authorized to speak publicly.

One of those brothers is Ovidio Guzmán López, who has been in U.S. custody since 2023. He pleaded guilty to various charges last July, when court filings revealed that he too is cooperating with U.S. authorities.

Ovidio Guzmán López, a leader of the Sinaloa cartel faction known as Los Chapitos, was detained on Oct. 17, 2019, by Mexican security forces. He is now in custody in the United States.

(Uncredited / Associated Press)

Their half-sibling is the alleged ringleader of Los Chapitos: Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar. U.S. authorities have offered a reward of $10 million for his capture.

Guzmán Salazar, 42, is a key figure in the case against Rocha Moya, with the indictment claiming he commanded his army of “sicarios” to wage a campaign of terror in order to ensure the governor’s 2021 election.

Two sources familiar with the ongoing cases but not authorized to speak publicly said Guzmán Salazar and his younger brother have been in contact with U.S. authorities about the possibility of a negotiated surrender. One of the sources said the discussions had been underway for a year, and suspected the brothers had been waiting to see how their half-siblings’ cases play out before making their move.

The lawyer for the brothers, Jeffrey Lichtman, did not respond to questions from The Times.

If Guzmán Salazar ever faces justice in the U.S. — where he is under multiple federal indictments — it’s unclear whether he would be charged with any crimes in connection with Zambada’s kidnapping.

So far, nobody has been held to account for the killing of Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda, a political rival of Rocha Moya who Zambada says was shot to death during his abduction. Zambada also said two of his bodyguards, one of them a Sinaloa state police commander, have not been “seen or heard from since.”

The sources who spoke with The Times said the plane that carried Zambada to the U.S. belonged to Guzmán Salazar, suggesting it was he who orchestrated the plot.

The pilot was apparently released after landing and allowed to return to Mexico. He was later arrested in Sinaloa by Mexican security forces and quietly handed over to the Trump administration last August, along with more than two dozen other suspected cartel figures.

Sources familiar with the case identified him as Mauro Alberto Nunez Ojeda, aka Jondo.

Court records show he pleaded guilty to federal charges last month in Washington, D.C., admitting that his job in the cartel was to “work directly” for Guzmán Salazar, overseeing his fleet of aircraft, serving as his personal pilot and ferrying shipments of drugs and weapons.

The court filings make no mention of Zambada’s kidnapping, and Nunez Ojeda’s attorney did not respond to a question about his client’s alleged role in the affair. A Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment.

In a July 26, 2024, news conference, Mexico’s then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador discussed the arrest of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán by U.S. federal agents.

(Alfredo Estrella / AFP via Getty Images)

Facing life in prison with no parole, Zambada is being held while he awaits a July 20 sentencing hearing at the same federal jail in Brooklyn that houses former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Given the possibility that he could be shipped to the remote “supermax” prison in Colorado where his former partner El Chapo has been held in extreme isolation since his 2019 conviction, some have speculated that Zambada could seek to help himself by spilling secrets about Rocha Moya and others.

Zambada’s lawyer, Frank Perez, has denied any such thing.

“Reports circulating on media outlets claiming that Mr. Zambada has entered into a cooperation agreement with the United States government are categorically false,” Perez said in a statement to The Times. “Mr. Zambada has not entered into any cooperation agreement, has not pled pursuant to any cooperation arrangement, and is not cooperating with the United States government in any capacity.”

Whether the kidnapping of Zambada was a masterstroke or a blunder for Los Chapitos remains to be seen. The betrayal triggered a civil war within the cartel, and the factions loyal to El Chapo’s sons have been severely weakened over the last year, losing territory across Sinaloa.

The indictment of Rocha Moya appears to strike another blow, and acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said last week that more charges could be on tap soon against other Mexican officials.

Regardless of what happens next, one source familiar with the Chapitos cases said the kidnapping of Zambada was “a legit gangster move, for sure.”