Mystery surrounds the capture of Mexican drug lord Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now let's probe a mystery surrounding the capture of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. He is one of Mexico's most notorious drug lords. He was flown to the United States last month, but neither the U.S. nor Mexico have been saying much about his capture. Now El Mayo himself is releasing details in a public letter, which NPR's Eyder Peralta has been reading. Good morning.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: What's the letter say?

PERALTA: From the beginning this story just seemed a little too simple. U.S. officials arrested Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada at a New Mexico airport alongside another top leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. And they hinted that it was an operation, but oddly, one that happened without any violence. The Americans eventually did say, look, we negotiated with Joaquin Guzman Lopez so he could turn himself in. But without telling us, he brought us this much bigger fish. And then Zambada in this public letter said that he was betrayed by Guzman, the son of his former partner, El Chapo Guzman, the guy who he had known from the time he was a baby.

Zambada said that Guzman tricked him into thinking he was going to meet with the governor of Sinaloa. And instead, he said, Guzman tied him up and flew him to the U.S. This is eye-popping for the drama but also because Zambada is essentially alleging collusion between the state and organized crime. He says he was not only expecting to meet with important government officials but that he also showed up to the meeting with a police commander who he says had run his security for years.

INSKEEP: Oh, wow. So he's telling a story and also alleging a kind of scandal. Well, what is the Mexican government saying?

PERALTA: The president of Mexico has spent the last few weeks saying Mexico had nothing to do with this. But yesterday, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reacted to these accusations of collusion he got defensive.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR: (Speaking Spanish).

PERALTA: "What makes the U.S. think," he said, "that by arresting a famous drug dealer, they can fix their addiction problem?" He said this arrest, like others in the past, are part of an American strategy to tar foreign governments, to allege collusion in order to subjugate them. But part of what the Mexican president is reacting to is that this arrest could open a can of worms. Everyone in Mexico whispers about the collusion between the drug cartels and the government. But these are no longer whispers. This is the top drug lord putting words on paper and naming names. And this is sensitive because it could lead not just to the downfall of politicians, but it can spark violent retaliations among armed groups.

INSKEEP: Oh, which I know you have been reporting on. What have you seen when you've left Mexico City, where you are, and looked at southern Mexico?

PERALTA: We haven't seen an explosion of violence. I was reporting on the fighting between the Sinaloa cartel and the invading Jalisco cartel, and it's heartbreaking. I saw farm workers forcefully recruited into cartel work. I saw whole families who had to flee their homes. And then when they came back, they found their houses had been looted and that their farm animals were gone or dead. I know that when these arrests happen, we tend to focus on the police work or the geopolitics of it. But on the ground, the turf wars run by these men, they're painful. And it's likely that the civilians in Mexico will be the ones who will suffer the most in whatever the fallout of these arrests turn out to be.

INSKEEP: NPR's Eyder Peralta. Always a pleasure to hear from you, sir. Thank you so much.

PERALTA: Thank you, Steve.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRISTEZA'S "GOLDEN HILL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.