Mexico City — President Claudia Sheinbaum has ordered the Foreign Ministry and the Security Cabinet to investigate whether FBI agents led the capture of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in July 2024, following the release of previously unseen images of his detention.
“We are going to review it. Yesterday we saw the report published by Pie de Nota. I asked the Foreign Ministry and the Security Cabinet to conduct this review, and if they agree, we will discuss it next week,” Sheinbaum said Friday during her morning press conference in Michoacán.
The investigation was prompted by a report from the news outlet Pie de Nota, which shared exclusive video and photographs with Infobae Mexico showing Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López — son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — inside and descending from a plane at Santa Teresa Airport in New Mexico on July 25, 2024. The images are the first to document the arrival of both capos on US soil.
The photographs show Guzmán López wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans, with a blurred-faced individual holding his arm. Another man in a gray suit with a pistol at his waist appears near the jet’s staircase. In a second image, Zambada is seen descending from the Beechcraft King Air aircraft — white with black and gold stripes, partial tail number N287KA — assisted by three men. A fourth man stands behind him. Neither man was tied up, and both were arrested once they set foot on the ground, according to a source cited by Pie de Nota.
The aircraft was reportedly modified before the operation, which has been described as a kidnapping orchestrated by Guzmán López against Zambada. The event triggered a wave of violence in Sinaloa, sparking a war between the Chapitos and Mayos factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly stated that the circumstances of Zambada’s detention and transfer to the United States have not been fully clarified.
