Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada jointly heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel
and, with Guzman behind bars again and facing possible extradition to
the United States, it falls to Zambada to maintain the gang's ranking as
the world's largest.
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With Mexico's 'Chapo' back behind bars, Zambada the last capo standing(Reuters)
Mexico's public enemy No. 1, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,
was nabbed last week after a gunfight and high speed getaway bid. But
his more discreet partner is flourishing, moving tonnes of drugs to the United States and laundering the profits at home.
Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada jointly heads the powerful Sinaloa cartel
and, with Guzman behind bars again and facing possible extradition to
the United States, it falls to Zambada to maintain the gang's ranking as
the world's largest.
In the past few
years, Mexican security forces have captured or killed almost all the
leading kingpins who had dominated drug trafficking over the last two
decades. Guzman, the most prominent of all, was recaptured on Friday,
six months after his second escape from maximum security prison.
That leaves Zambada, 68, as the most senior capo still standing.
"He is the patriarch," said Antonio Mazzitelli, the U.N. representative on drugs and crime in Mexico.
Zambada was listed as a defendant in a U.S. case as long ago as 1978, when Colombia's Pablo Escobar
was just starting his trafficking career. Unlike Escobar, who was shot
dead in 1993, Zambada has never been arrested and is still selling
cocaine.
Eight years ago, the U.S. Treasury
Department declared a business network owned by his ex-wife and children
was a money-laundering front. But most of the companies are still open.
There
are two secrets to his success, experts say. He keeps a low profile and
spends heavily on alliances with politicians and police.
"Zambada is very careful," said Javier Valdez, a founder of Sinaloan weekly newspaper Riodoce, describing him as a man who rarely travels and avoids big cities. "He controls the Sinaloan police, he has businesses in many sectors."
Rarely
photographed, Zambada keeps away from the limelight. In Culiacan, the
beating heart of Mexican drug trafficking and the centre of his power,
his presence is felt everywhere, although he is rarely seen.
Children
grew up drinking Santa Monica milk produced at a dairy the United
States said was a front organization. Others pass through the
kindergarten, aquatic park, and shopping centre owned by relatives and
associates.
In the small town of Salado, rumoured to be Mayo's home turf, locals warned Reuters reporters not to pry into Zambada's life. "Don't even mention his name," an old woman selling tortillas hissed.
Zambada
was born in a village nestled among low mountains called El Alamo, on
the outskirts of Culiacan. Until recently he was known to arrive there
to hand out money and children's' gifts at Christmas, in the style of
old drug lords.
In a rare interview to Mexican
news magazine Proceso in 2010, Zambada said he had come close to arrest
on four occasions, crawling through ditches to flee soldiers.
On
the whole, he said, he was more careful than his friend Guzman. He is
also more afraid of serving time, saying that he'd rather die.
BILLIONAIRES
Zambada's
faction of the Sinaloa cartel is a family business with sons occupying
top trafficking positions and his daughters owning businesses.
In
2013, Mexican authorities froze two of the dairy's bank accounts. Two
people currently working there said the Santa Monica brand had now been
sold to another Culiacan based company called Nuthree. Neither Nuthree
or the dairy could be reached for official comment.
Several of Zambada's relatives are in prison, including three of his sons. Others have died violently.
One
son, Vicente Zambada, gave dramatic testimony in a plea deal with the
U.S. government in 2013 that showed how central his father was to
bringing drug money back from the United States, as well as to shipping
cocaine and heroin.
Vicente Zambada earlier said
he was a DEA informant and critics allege that by snitching on rivals he
helped cement the Sinaloa cartel's dominance.
Born
into poverty, Ismael Zambada once said it was "stupidity" to suggest he
might have enough wealth to feature in the Forbes billionaires list,
like Guzman.
Still, part of Vicente's plea deal
was an agreement to hand over $1.3 billion in assets. The U.S.
government is seeking to confiscate another $2 billion of assets shared
by Zambada, Guzman and other associates, according to an indictment
unsealed in 2015.
In multiple indictments and
statements, the U.S. government has created a picture of the older
Zambada as an astute businessmen, managing many of the cartel's
financial operations.
HOMEBODY
While
Guzman led the cartel into battle with rivals to expand its control of
trafficking routes, Zambada is more closely associated with maintaining
its core strength in Sinaloa state.
It is too
early to say what impact Guzman's arrest will have on the Sinaloa
cartel, and there are rumors that his eldest son Ivan could take over.
But it was Zambada who kept things running when Guzman did his two
previous stints in prison.
In an indictment
unsealed in Illinois in September, Zambada and Guzman are named as the
leaders of the cartel and accused of importing massive shipments of
cocaine as well as heroin and methamphetamine into the United States.
Their
alliance has been extraordinarily successful and their cartel has been
the main winner of a drugs war that killed more than 100,000 people
since 2007.
One faction of the cartel broke off
until its leader was killed but, unlike other gangs, the Sinaloa cartel
remains a relatively stable group.
"(It) is the only real cartel, it was established and keeps on operating as an association of businessmen," said Mazzitelli.
A map published last year by the Drug Enforcement Administration is testimony to Sinaloa's success.
Apart
from Texas and Arizona, the whole of the United States, from New York
to Los Angeles, is shown as being under the influence of the Sinaloa
gang
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