The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, asked the Mexican Prosecutor's Office to clarify the situation of the pilot of the aircraft that transported Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to the United States, on July 25, 2024.

"The Prosecutor's Office explained yesterday, they have to continue giving this information... We have to look at the conditions under which it was delivered (to the US), the Prosecutor's Office already reported it, the Prosecutor's Office would have to raise it and I ask the Foreign Minister (Roberto Velasco) to review the case so that we can provide more information," said the president.

According to what was revealed by the Mexican Prosecutor's Office, the pilot who transported Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, from Culiacán, Sinaloa to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, near El Paso, Texas, was initially deported to Mexico and after committing a series of crimes, he was captured by Mexican authorities and sent to the United States.

"The pilot was deported. He continued to operate, committing crimes in Mexico, he was arrested for carrying weapons and was handed over based on the National Security Law to the United States government, this is the situation that appears in the file regarding the pilot," explained David Boone de la Garza, head of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Regional Control of Mexico, during a press conference held yesterday, Wednesday, July 8, 2026.

However, this situation has generated controversy in public opinion because instead of the Mexican authorities having kept the pilot in Mexico so that he could provide more information about the “El Mayo” Zambada operation, the Sheinbaum administration decided to hand him over to the United States through a procedure supported by the National Security Law.

When questioned about whether the delivery of the pilot to the United States was during the administration of Alejandro Gertz Manero as head of the FGR, the president asked the current prosecutor, Ernestina Godoy, to clarify the situation of the pilot who is identified as Mauro Alberto Núñez Ojeda, alias "Jondo", according to the newspaper Los Angeles Times.

"I don't have that information, the prosecutor's office reported it yesterday, let's see if the prosecutor (Ernestina Godoy) can give us more information today about this particularity so that we can inform them," said Sheinbaum Pardo.

According to investigation reports, it was on July 25, 2024, during the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was allegedly summoned by Joaquín Guzmán López, through deception, to a farm where he was ambushed, subdued and tied up before being put on a Beechcraft King Air 200 plane with altered license plates.

After his capture, the aircraft took flight from a clandestine runway in Culiacán Sinaloa to land in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, where US authorities were already waiting for him to be detained and later sent to the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, in New York.