The unknown origin of “El Mayo” Zambada: how he went from washing trucks to the top boss of the Sinaloa Cartel

The recent statements of the former US Ambassador, Roberta Jacobson, on the case of the former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna and former President Felipe Calderón, and their ties to organized crime; They have put Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and the corrupting power of the Sinaloa Cartel back on the public agenda.

“The government of Felipe Calderón had in his possession information about Genaro García Luna’s links with drug trafficking when he served as head of the Ministry of Public Security (SSP) ”, spread the weekly Process, according to Jacobson’s testimony.

Although, after what was published in Process the former ambassador clarified what she said through her Twitter account, and wrote: “I never saw any corroborated information about involvement in drug trafficking“; previously, the journalist specialized in organized crime issues, Anabel Hernández, with his investigations he has revealed data that goes in the same direction to what Jacobson referred to.

“The information that I have absolutely corroborated, directly corroborated, is that Mr. Felipe Calderón did know; there was someone from his Cabinet who directly warned him that drug traffickers, who were extradited in the United States or who were being detained in Mexico during his Government, they were pointing out in great detail the relationships that Mr. Genaro García Luna had with ‘El Chapo’ [Joaquín Guzmán Loera], with ‘El Mayo’ Zambada [Ismael Zambada García], with the Sinaloa Cartel, to which the President of the Republic preferred to do nothing, “Hernández said in an interview on the program The Eighth.

“I wrote the book ´The accomplices of the president´, precisely from his complicity relationship with Mr. Felipe Calderón, who at that time was its Chief, the President of the Republic, and later I wrote the book The drug lords, which incidentally cost me that this man, Genaro García Luna, when he was very powerful, the most powerful Secretary of State of those times and the most powerful policeman of those times, well when he had hired people to assassinate me, a fact that by the way was corroborated by agents of the United States Government a few months before Genaro García Luna was arrested in december of last year“Explained the journalist.

In his most recent book, ´El Traidor´, which he presented last year, Hernández reveals passages from the Mexican drug trafficker, as relevant as the above. The book publishes an investigation that the journalist began since 2011, when Fernando Gaxiola, attorney for Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias “El Vicentillo”, contacted her by orders of his client to deliver documents and information to clarify things that he had already published in his book, “Los Señores del Narco”.

Among the documents to which he had access are the newspapers made by Vicentillo during the negotiations to collaborate with the North American government, which until now were secret.

“Everything went through ‘El Mayo’, not ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán … He decided who lived and who died ”, verifies his research and his statement already raised since his previous publication:“ Los Señores del Narco ”.

But, who was the character that helped Ismael in its beginnings “El Mayo ”Zambada and introduced him to the world of drug trafficking? “That is also one of the myths and episodes that Anabel Hernández reveals.

“The one who really introduces him to the world of drugs is a Cuban man, Antonio Cruz,” he told an interview with Infobae Mexico, within the framework of the presentation of his book ´El Traidor´.

“Antonio Cruz who is not even on the radar of anyone in Mexico, who married the sister of` El Mayo´. Her brother-in-law was a major heroin drug trafficker, who was first a Cuban police officer in the Fidel Castro regime and who later emigrates to Miami, and who attempts to be a major drug trafficker in the United States. He is arrested and later emigrates to Mexico, he meets Zambada’s sister when Vicente Zambada, when his family is in total poverty. When he (El Mayo Zambada) had to wash the tires of the trucks that entered the sugar mill that was in the vicinity of Culiacán. When he didn’t even have anything to support his family, that’s when this Cuban comes to change the Zambada family’s lives. ”

Hernández points out that this story was not known. She was able to know it first hand thanks to the Vicentillo newspaper and later with her investigations that she did to verify what she read in the document.

The story goes back to the 1970s, when his brother-in-law, Antonio Cruz, was a major drug trafficker in Los Angeles, who trafficked in Las Vegas and other US cities. SHowever, he was arrested in 1977 and it is there, when, for the first time, the Zambada family name appears in criminal records in the United States.

“We are talking about the 70s, at that time, indeed, he did become (El Mayo) a major drug trafficker in Los Angeles, operating for his brother-in-law the Cuban, who was the big drug dealer in Las Vegas and in other cities. From Los Angeles he goes down to Tijuana and establishes a corridor, which was the one he used to traffic all that drug for his brother-in-law. After Antonio Cruz, in 1977 he falls into prison and that’s when the last name Zambada appears in the criminal records of the United States for the first times ”.

“Then he moved to Tijuana and stayed a long time traveling between Tijuana and Los Angeles. Then he would be associated with the Arellano Félix brothers. They begin to have a war, they turn their backs on him, they tell him you are no longer the boss and they attempt against the life of his son in 1991. It is there when `El Mayo decides to move his empire to Culiacán ‘.

“El Mayo” Zambada: chief of chiefs of the Mexican drug traffickers: “He decided who lived and who died”

Hernández affirms that the true chief of chiefs of the Mexican drug traffickers is Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. He explains that he is the only one who has been in drug trafficking for decades without being arrested or killed; but also, because it is evident (in the personal newspaper of the “Vicentillo” to which the journalist had access), the hierarchy he had over “El Chapo” or even, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Señor de los Cielos”.

Amado was a man who paid homage to “El Mayo”

“I say that the chief of chiefs has been `El Mayo´ Zambada, why, number one: he is the only one who has survived 50 years in organized crime. Number two: because, according to Vicente Zambada Niebla’s newspaper, his partner Amado Carrillo Fuentes, when he was already the great `The Lord of the heavens, I had to ask `El Mayo´ about some things. Amado was a man who paid homage to `El Mayo´Beloved was a man who even was to threaten the Arellano Félix brothers to tell them that he was not going to support them in their war against ‘El Mayo, which for him,’ El Mayo ‘is above all else. ”

“When Amado Carrillo Fuentes died in this liposuction surgery, it is when it is most noticeable. His brother, Vicente Carrillo, calls Godfather to `El Mayo´ all the time. and governs instructions on Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. He gives instructions about `Chapo´Guzmán himself, he was not autonomous when he had to make important decisions, I had to ask permission from `El Mayo´”.

Joaquín Guzmán was never the head of the Sinaloa Cartel

Anabel says that from her book, “Los Señores del Narco”, she had pointed out that Guzmán Loera was not the head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“From the book ‘Los Señores del Narco’ I had pointed out that ‘El Chapo’Because of his cultural level, because of his personality, it was incredible that the government blamed him for being the big boss they said. I said that the political power was the one that protected `El Chapo´, which made him have this power. So I am not one of those who thought that `El Chapo´ was a very important capo, I always saw him as very small because of his abilities compared to what they were blaming him for.”

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