A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
One of Mexico's most notorious drug lords is now in U.S. custody.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada founded the Sinaloa cartel, along with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Last night, U.S. authorities announced he had been arrested, and they say he will appear before an American judge soon.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Eyder Peralta is following the story from his base in Mexico City. Eyder, tell us about this arrest and who this man is.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: So, A, about the arrest we know very little. U.S. officials tell us this was a multi-agency operation, and we know that Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada somehow ended up on a plane to the United States. U.S. officials also announced that they had also arrested Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo Guzman and one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, but the big fish here is El Mayo Zambada. He's arguably the most important drug lord in Mexico and perhaps even the world, and he had never been caught before. Unlike his once-partner, El Chapo, El Mayo Zambada kept a low profile. U.S. officials first indicted him more than 20 years ago, and they accused him of shipping tons of drugs into the U.S. and using millions of dollars to bribe some of Mexico's most powerful public officials. And this man is important because he is believed to lead one of the most important factions of the Sinaloa cartel, and the Sinaloa cartel is one of the biggest exporters of synthetic drugs in the world. And that includes fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so a very high-profile arrest. What could this mean for the drug war and the drug trade?
PERALTA: I spoke to Gerardo Rodriguez last night. He studies security at the University of the Americas Puebla, and he says we will continue to see fentanyl smuggled into the U.S. Rodriguez says the demand in the United States is too great, and the profit incentive remains the same. But this is a huge hit for the Sinaloa cartel. Remember, its former leader, El Chapo Guzman, is serving a life sentence in the U.S. Two of his sons are also in custody, and the cartel has now lost a decadeslong leader, so it leaves a huge power vacuum, and Professor Rodriguez says that we should expect to see a spike in violence.
GERARDO RODRIGUEZ: Maybe what we can see is what we saw in Colombia, is the pulverization of the biggest cartels. Maybe the disputes will arise inside the cartel of Sinaloa.
PERALTA: So he's saying that maybe the Sinaloa cartel will implode, or maybe all of this ends with an all-out fight between Sinaloa and the second most powerful cartel, the Jalisco New Generation. And it's important to note that none of this would actually be new. Sinaloa was already fractured, and these two cartels are already fighting a war. Just this week, fighting got so bad in southern Mexico that some 600 civilians had to flee across the border to Guatemala.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Now, the drug trade in Mexico has already been a big deal in U.S. presidential politics. Republicans, including Donald Trump, have proposed bombing cartels in Mexico to stop fentanyl from coming into the U.S. Any sense, Eyder, on how this might play out on the campaign trail?
PERALTA: This is no doubt a huge win for the Biden administration, but it's not a silver bullet. It doesn't solve the addiction problem in the U.S. It doesn't solve the violence or trafficking problem in Mexico, so I would bet we'll keep hearing much of the same rhetoric coming from American politicians.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Eyder Peralta, reporting from Mexico City. Thank you.
PERALTA: Thank you, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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