The legendary cartel boss was ambushed, drugged and flown to the United States, according to a plea agreement with

Armed men entered through a window to set up an ambush Ismael “El Mayo” Zambadathe most elusive of the Sinaloa cartel leaders, who was then loaded onto a plane, drugged and flown across the border into the United States, according to details revealed Monday at the plea hearing for the drug trafficker who kidnapped him.

Joaquín Guzmán López, the 39-year-old son of former Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pleaded guilty to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing criminal activity in Chicago federal court after admitting his role in overseeing the transportation of tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the US.

As part of that plea deal, U.S. prosecutors shared what had been one of the central questions in the hours and days immediately after Zambada fell into American hands in July 2024.

How did the cunning drug lord who had stayed ahead of authorities for decades end up in the United States like a gift tied with a bow?

The plea agreement did not name Zambada, but in the days after his arrest, one of his lawyers shared a letter from him explaining that he had been called to a meeting with Guzmán López and he had been kidnapped there.

Andrew Erskine, a lawyer representing the U.S. government, said Monday that the alleged kidnapping of an unidentified individual was part of an attempt to show cooperation with Washington, which he said did not sanction such actions. He also said that Guzmán López would not receive cooperation credit for that.

The arrest of both drug traffickers by US authorities infuriated then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who suspected that the US government was behind the operation. Washington denied involvement from the beginning, but experts thought it would be virtually impossible to pull it off without U.S. authorities having some knowledge.

Erskine described the alleged kidnapping in court and said Guzmán López had the glass removed from a floor-to-ceiling window in a room before the meeting with the unidentified person.

Guzmán López allegedly had other people enter through the open window, grab the individual, put a bag over his head and take him to a plane. On board, he was restrained and given sedatives before the plane landed at an airport in New Mexico, near the Texas border.

Zambada in his letter said that Guzmán López had summoned him to a meeting outside the Sinaloa state capital, Culiacán, along with some local politicians, one of whom was later found dead.

He said that when he arrived there were many armed men in green military uniforms, who he assumed were gunmen from the “Chapitos,” as the sons of “El Chapo” Guzmán were known. According to a 2023 US indictment, the Chapitos and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution, and hot chili peppers to torture your rivals while some of his victims were “fed alive or dead to the tigers.”

Even though they ran a rival faction within the cartel, Zambada maintained communication with them and seemed to trust Guzmán López enough to follow him into a dark room.

Only the pilot, Zambada and Guzmán López were on the plane that landed in New Mexico. On board the plane, Zambada was given a drink containing sedatives, of which Guzmán López also drank a little, according to Guzmán López’s account.

Instead of congratulating or thanking the United States for arresting the elusive Zambada, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said it was studying the possibility of filing treason charges against Guzmán López or whoever helped in the plot.

The arrests sparked a bloody fight in Sinaloa between their respective cartel factions for control of the business, violence that López Obrador’s successor president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is still grappling with.

With the plea deal, Guzmán López’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he is expected to avoid life in prison.

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States for 25 years.

In May, Mexico’s security chief confirmed that 17 family members of the cartel leaders crossed into the United States as part of an agreement between a son of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration. El Chapo’s ex-wife, Griselda López Pérez, and her daughter were among the relatives who entered the United States, local media reported.