Mexico could request from the US resources seized from 'El Mayo' Zambada
Sheinbaum clarified that if there were a seizure of “passive resources” by the US government from “El Mayo” the return would be requested
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, considered this Wednesday that her government could request resources that the United States eventually seizes from the drug trafficker Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, with the objective of them being returned for “the benefit of the people.”
“If there were a seizure of resources (…), we would also have to ask for these resources to be returned to Mexico for the benefit of the people,” the president said during her morning press conference.
This Tuesday it was revealed that a US judge ordered Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel and one of the most wanted drug traffickers for decades, to pay a fine of 15 billion dollars, after he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
In this regard, Sheinbaum specified that if there were a seizure of “passive resources” by the US government from El Mayo, the return would be requested “for the damages caused to the population of Mexico, and that it be distributed to the poorest people.”
In this regard, she recalled that there is an Institute to Return to the People What Was Stolen, an organization that recently auctioned off a property linked to a member of a criminal organization.
The $15 billion that El Mayo will have to pay is part of the US Department of Justice's calculation, said Mexico's Secretary of Security, Omar Garcia Harfuch, who ruled out that this has to do with the investigations being carried out by the Mexican Justice system.
Zambada, who faces seventeen charges, admitted to having led a criminal organization - the Sinaloa cartel - continuously from January 1989 to January 2024.
He also admitted to having conspired according to the assumptions of the so-called Rico Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), due to his participation in money laundering, murders and kidnappings related to drug trafficking.
The former leader of the Sinaloa cartel was arrested in July of last year after landing at the Santa Teresa airport (New Mexico, USA).) in a small plane with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the sons of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who, according to El Mayo, set a trap to take him to the United States and hand him over to the authorities. EFE