US arrests top Mexican drug lords 'El Mayo' and son of 'El Chapo' in Texas

Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and the son of his former partner, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, were arrested in El Paso, Texas, the US Justice Department said.

"The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organisations in the world," the department said in a statement.

Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo, face multiple charges in the US "for heading the Cartel's criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks," the statement said.

Two US officials told the Reuters news agency that Zambada and Guzman Lopez were detained after landing in a private plane.

Zambada is one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico's history and co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo, who was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.

After El Chapo's extradition, his criminal empire was inherited by four of his sons — known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos — who took over his faction of the cartel and became some of the biggest exporters of fentanyl to the United States.

US federal prosecutors in February charged Zambada with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, which the Drug Enforcement Administration says is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

Zambada's criminal life

El Mayo and Los Chapitos have had a fractious relationship since El Chapo's extradition, and the arrests of the two traffickers may trigger instability or even violence in Mexico.

Zambada reputedly won the loyalty of locals in his home state of Sinaloa, and neighbouring Duran through his largess, sponsoring local farmers and distributing money and beer in his birthplace of El Alamo.

Although little is known about Zambada's early life, he is believed to have gotten his start in drug trafficking as an enforcer in the 1970s.

By the early 1990s, he was a major player in the Juarez cartel, transporting tons of cocaine and marijuana.

Zambada started gaining the trust of Colombian traffickers, allegiances that helped him come out on top in the cartel world of ever-shifting alliances.

Eventually, he became so powerful that he broke off from the Juarez cartel, but still managed to keep strong ties with the gang and avoided a turf war.

He also developed a partnership with "El Chapo" that would take him to the top of the Sinaloa Cartel.