‘I was ambushed’: Sinaloa cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ details capture
Al Jazeera
Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada says he was taken against his will to US amid conflicting accounts of arrest last month.
The co-founder of the Sinaloa drug cartel says he was kidnapped in Mexico and delivered into United States custody against his will, in the latest chapter of a dramatic case that has sparked global attention.
“I was ambushed,” Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada said in a statement released through his lawyer on Saturday that he said aimed to clear up the rumours and misinformation surrounding his capture last month.
US authorities have said that Zambada was detained on July 25 along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the sons of another co-founder of the cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
They were arrested after landing in El Paso, Texas, on a private plane.
On Friday, Zambada’s lawyer said Guzman Lopez and six men in military uniforms “forcibly kidnapped” his client near the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan and flew him to the US against his will.
