Police Off The Cuff/Real Crime Stories

2 Sinaloa Cartel Kingpins are arrested in El Paso Texas.

Duration:: 49m
Broadcast on:: 26 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

2 Sinaloa Cartel Kingpins are arrested in El Paso Texas and detained The arrest in the United States of two top leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel came after what initial accounts suggest was a dramatic betrayal that saw one of the men, a son of the notorious drug lord known as El Chapo, lure the other under false pretenses onto a plane that delivered them both into the hands of American law enforcement. One of the operatives taken into custody, Ismael Zambada García, was arguably the most powerful criminal in Mexico, a septuagenarian kingpin who helped to found the Sinaloa cartel with El Chapo decades ago and remained at large even after his partner was extradited to the United States and convicted at a trial in New York City. The other was one of El Chapo’s own sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, who with his brothers had inherited a large swath of their father’s illicit business moving massive amounts of cocaine and fentanyl into the United States, Europe and elsewhere. The two men were arrested at a small local airport outside of El Paso, Texas, on Thursday afternoon after their Beechcraft King Air plane landed there on a flight from Mexico, U.S. officials said. Mr. Guzmán López had persuaded Mr. Zambada García to join him on the flight by saying they were going to look at real estate, officials said, but the plane instead headed north across the border. (NY Times) 💯 Join our mission to uncover the truth in crime! Support Police Off the Cuff on Patreon for exclusive content and insider access. Click now and become a part of our detective squad: https://www.patreon.com/policeoffthecuff 💬 Did you like this video? Let me know in the comments below! ✅ Subscribe to Police off the Cuff right now! Click here: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceofftheCuff?sub_confirmation=1 Or become a YouTube Member to get access to perks here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKo80Xa1PYTc23XN_Yjp8pA/join --------------- Welcome to the Official YouTube Channel of Police off the Cuff This is where the veil of mystery on high-profile cases is lifted through the sharp insights of seasoned law enforcement professionals and where real crime meets real analysis. This is your destination for exploring the complexities of true crime stories, illuminated by the rich experience and street wisdom of those who have walked the thin blue line. At the helm is retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a figure of authority in the crime investigation arena, with a diverse background that spans across acting, broadcasting, and academia. Bill's profound knowledge and keen analytical skills, combined with his empathetic approach, make each story not just heard but felt. Phil's extensive investigative experience, coupled with his genuine passion and characteristic Brooklyn charm, adds depth and relatability to the discussions. ➡️ Here we navigate the intricate web of the nation's most captivating crime stories, offering not just stories, but an education on the realities of criminal investigation. Their combined expertise provides a unique lens through which the stories are told, offering insights that only those with firsthand experience can provide. Join us on this journey into the heart of true crime, where every episode promises a deep dive into the minds of criminals and the tireless efforts of law enforcement to bring them to justice. --------------- 📲 Follow Police off the Cuff on social media: Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/policeoffthecuff Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/Policeoffthecuff-312794509230136/ Twitter ▶️ https://twitter.com/policeoffthecuf 🎧 Dive deep into true crime with Police Off the Cuff Podcast. Join retired NYPD expert Bill Cannon as he dissects infamous cases with insider insight: https://anchor.fm/otcpod1 ☑️ Support Police Off the Cuff and help us bring you more captivating crime stories. Every contribution makes a difference! Choose your preferred way to donate: Venmo: https://venmo.com/William-Cannon-27 PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/policeoffthecuff1gma --------------- 📚 Disclaimer: This video may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ---------------

"My dad works in B2B marketing. "He came by my school for career day "and said he was a big row as man. "Then he told everyone how much he loved "calculating his return on ad spend. "My friends still laughing at me to this day." - Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linked in, the place to be, to be. (upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to Police Off the Cuff Real Crime Stories. I'm your host, the tight NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a 27 year veteran of the NYPD. You know, folks, we hear all the time, especially from politicians, especially in conversations in Congress, about the huge fentanyl problem coming in from Mexico and the cocaine problem, the drug problem, the cartel problem, the gang problem, all of those things. But yesterday, something was done about it. However, it smells of political, of a political stunt in a way, because the persons, or persons who were arrested, these two individuals to see on the screen, and they're called Cinello cartel kingpins, and they were arrested in El Paso, Texas. And the person on the left is Ishmael El Mayo Zambada. And he founded the Cinello cartel with El Chapo, who is the gentleman on the rights father, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. El Chapo is his father. So it would seem, you know, obviously, to arrest them and be, without having to worry about extradition, they arrested him right in Texas. And there was, apparently, from what I understand, there was a betrayal from Joaquin Guzman Lopez against Ishmael El Mayo Zambada. He lured him onto the plane, a private plane, a different destination in the United States, under the guise of looking at real estate, and instead, once they got into El Paso, federal agents swarmed and placed them both under arrest. And according to, I'll read you some of the information we have from, well, there you look on the screen, is Ishmael Zambada Garcia. The arrest in the United States of the two top leaders of the Cinello drug cartel came after what initial accounts suggest was a dramatic betrayal that saw one of the men, a son of the notorious drug lord known as El Chapo. Lord, the other under false pretenses, onto a plane that delivered them both into the hands of the American law enforcement. One of the operatives taken into custody, Ishmael Zambada Garcia, was arguably the most powerful criminal in Mexico, a subtergenarian kingpin who helped to found the Cinello cartel with El Chapo decades ago, and remained at large, even if this partner was extradited to the United States and convicted at a trial in New York City. The other one was one of El Chapo's own sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who with his brothers had inherited a large swath of their father's illicit business, moving massive amounts of cocaine and fentanyl into the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. The two men were arrested at a small airport outside of El Paso, Texas on Thursday afternoon. After their beachcraft King Airplane land, they were on a flight from Mexico. Mr. Guzman Lopez had persuaded Mr. Zambada Garcia to join him on the flight by saying they were going to look at real estate officials said, but the plane instead headed north across the border. So the betrayal was in, and there's probably many reasons for this. This drug business, as we all know, is a dirty and dangerous filthy business where there is no friends, betrayal is just the name of the day is betrayal. And usually betrayal comes in the way of a bullet to the back of your head, just like the Italian mafia, except this is probably even more bloody. The cartels, the Cinolo cartels, because there's much more in play in a money perspective. So folks, hold on to your hats, hold on to your next door neighbor, hold on to your service dog, hold on to whatever you need, because you're about to enter true crime from a police perspective. You're about to enter the off the cuff zone, the police off the cuff zone. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) That's using common sense. (dramatic music) We still don't know before the trailer. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) - Joining me today to present this story of betrayal and arrest of allegedly two drug kingpins, even though now we understand there must be a deal. Some kind of deal was cut. And the person on the right, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo Lopez, is the one who cut the deal with Ishmael Elmao Zambarra putting him in prison, because if you look at this wanted poster on the screen, the US government was offering $15 million for his arrest, $15 million. I guess they wanted him. I guess he was the more dangerous of these two. And here we have the little chart of the Sinaloa Cartel and I love the top of the chart, Los Chapitos, the little Chapos. And that's their dad, of course, on the right who's serving life in prison in the US. So I'm sure this organization spares no one and there is no loyalty with anyone as this person who was betrayed had Ishmael Elmao Zambarra started, the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo. Anyway, to present this whole case with me today, I have retired NYPD Sergeant Michael Geary, Professor Albertus Magnus, attorney. Great to have him come on during the day. Welcome to the show, Mike. - Billy, good to see you. - Thank you for having me on, welcome everyone. - You know, Mike, when I first read this, I was like, you know, I don't think they could do it any other way, I don't think like a fighter jet could get word that a jet from Mexico is in here and force it to land in US territory. That would be, I guess, considered coercive and against all kinds of international law. But some trickery was used by one of the participants to get the Ishmael Elmao Zambarra gets him on a plane and betrays him. And that's of course, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, we're finding that out now. So allegedly, Mr. Ishmael Elmao Zambarra was more of the day-to-day operator, the CEO, the businessman, but is there anyone in that business that's not involved in violence in regards to that product, that illicit product? - Billy, there's too much money to be made. There's too much power needed. You have to have arms, you have to have soldiers. It's like the mafia, you'd see in American history throughout American history. I mean, that's what it is, it's gangs. And there's no way you can conduct this operate, these are kind of operations, unless you have muscle, unless you have people who are willing to kill and you put fear into people. That's the only way you can do it. But these aren't nice old men, like you'd see the, and maybe like the movie, the Godfather, they're sitting down talking about their problems. I'm sure that does happen, but there's, you know, when someone gets a little too old, someone gets a little pushy, there's gonna be violence. There's no way you can have it, any sort of operation like this without violence. And that's what keeps everyone in line. So everybody knows their job and everybody's fearful. You've seen this with all the shootings and the murders in the hat in North. I saw it in the Bronx, you know, and Phil saw it in Brooklyn. This is what happens, you know, on a smaller level. But this is the end game is that sometimes there is gonna be a betrayal. And like, like I love the movie Goodfellows and one of my favorite movies of all time. And Henry Hill, Ray Leo, the talks, he's doing the Henry Hill character. He talks about getting betrayed by the mafia. There's the people who are betraying you, are your best friends, are the people who you work with every day. And you won't even see it coming. So I think that's kind of what happened here. This was in the works for quite a while. And Garza Zumbada, Ishmael Garcia did not see this coming. And he thought he was among people who were friendly. Nope, there was enough money on the table and they took him out. - While American law enforcement of these had been quietly trying to persuade Mr. Guzman Lopez to turn himself in, almost from the moment that his father, Joaquin Guzman Lotta, was found guilty in 2019. That's of course El Chapo. It was not immediately clear why he decided to surrender himself and Mr. Zumbada Garcia. Well, this is according to the New York Times. Obviously, he cut a deal for himself. He obviously cut a deal. So they wanted the main guy who is, you know, on this post of Mr. Ishmael Elmao's in battle. They wanted him more than they wanted Joaquin Guzman Lopez. The arrests were hailed by officials in Washington as a major victory for U.S. law enforcement, which has accused Mr. Guzman's sons known collectively as the Chapitos for being among the world's leading smugglers of fentanyl. Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in his statement on Thursday, the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, remember an associate responsible for poisoning our community is held accountable. The timing of this is quite suspicious to me, Mike, that all of a sudden it's an election year and they're doing something about the absolute horrific problem of fentanyl crossing our borders. - You know, Billy, we've known about the fentanyl issues and through our borders released the past three and a half years. And at this time, that's what makes a little suspicious. It's not just coincidence that this deal was done now. I think there's a little political timing going on. The U.S. government, the Justice Department, I know they have to deal, they have to try to make some sort of way the good and the bad and who's worse a character than the other person. Who can we deal with? Who can't we deal with? Okay, so I know there's always gonna be deals we made. This looks like this deal was in the works for three years. What the hell took so long? Think about how many Americans have died from coke overdose and fentanyl deaths. And we know the precursors for these drugs, a lot of them, especially of the fentanyl, are coming from Asia, specifically China. So it's a long, it's one major bust, if you'd like to call it that, in this war on drugs. But nobody should be under any illusions whatsoever that it's really gonna change anything in the long run because we consume these narcotics, the demand is there, someone else is gonna fill the vacuum very quickly. So it does look like it's politically motivated. - 100%, this is from CBS News playing right now. - News, the arrest of two leaders from one of the world's most powerful drug cartels, the Justice Department say they caught up with Ismills and Bada Garcia and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo in Texas. Nicole Skanger has the latest, Nicole, good morning. Good morning, the arrests represent the takedown of two of Mexico's most powerful drug traffickers, once in command of a sweeping, illicit transnational narcotics trade. US authorities took into custody Ismills and Bada Garcia, better known as El Mayo at the US-Mexico border near El Paso. He's the notorious co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel and is believed to be its current leader. The US government had offered $15 million for any information leading to his capture. He was taken in along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of notorious drug lord El Chapo. El Mayo had evaded arrest for years, federal indictments against the drug can pin date back decades. And his recently is February, prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Administration calls fentanyl the leading cause of death for Americans between ages 18 to 45. And last night, the US Attorney General hailed these latest two arrests as part of a continued effort to stop its distribution. Tony. - All right, Nicole, thank you very much. - You know, how ridiculous again that all of a sudden it's an election year and they're doing something about this. This has been going on across administrations, I might add. Just what's going on for, you know, back to Trump, back to Obama. They've done nothing. I can't say nothing. But when you talk to agents from the DEA, the ATF, it depends who's in charge, whether they are supportive or not in their investigations. And there's been obviously, the Sinaloa cartel keeps $1 million a month in their budget for bribes. $1 million a month for bribes. So do you think it's difficult for police and for the DEA, the ATF, the FBI, all these letter agencies to infiltrate these Mexican drug cartels? I mean, forget about it. They can't trust the local police 'cause they're all getting paid off. - Yeah, but we've seen that in Mexico, one of our DEA agents, and I'm sorry, I can't think of his name right now. He was killed after he was given up by a, by Federale who was working with him undercover. You know, this kind of stuff is horrible. We've seen this stuff for years. You and I know we've seen that, you know, I remember being a cop in the Bronx in the 4/6. I think a kilo of Coke was like $35,000. When I was a sergeant in the 3/0, 18 years later, it was still about $35,000. There's, you know, it just shows you that enough is coming, and enough is coming in so that whatever gets found out, and people get arrested and stuff is recovered at the border, that's built into the price. That is just the cost of doing business. So although this is nice, it makes some headlines, and people might feel a bit better, you know, don't think anything's gonna change. I'm sorry, I'm a pessimist, but just don't think anything's gonna change 'cause I saw it in the Bronx in Manhattan as a street cop for 20 years, nothing's gonna change. - Absolutely, this is a Merrick Golland speaking upon this matter here. - The Justice Department took into custody in El Paso, two more alleged leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world. - Two drug cartel kingpins, they are now in U.S. custody. The FBI arrested Ismail El Mayo Garcia and Joaquin Boosman Lopez. He's the son of the notorious El Chapo in a sting operation yesterday. Both face several charges tied to fentanyl and drug trafficking. Let's bring in Ray Donovan, DEA, former chief of operations. I think Martha and I need some help understanding something. Why would El Chapo's son have wanted to participate in this sting operation? That's what something that Matt Finn said earlier. - So the first reason is the tremendous pressure on them throughout Sinaloa on the cartel from the Mexican partners as well as U.S. agents that are hunting them down. So the pressure on them would push them to want to cooperate. Keep in mind that another Chapo's son, Obidio, was extradited to Chicago earlier last year. And so he was already in custody. So it's just one of these things where Joaquin would want to get in front of being captured or killed in a balance between the cartel itself and other cartels. - And then we had another question. Do you think the pilot was in on this somehow? - That sting operation, let me give you some perspective on that. - Right. - First of all, it takes a long period of time. It takes intelligence, coordination and logistics to pull that off. It's not an easy sting operation. It's a tremendous victory for the United States and all the victims of drug trafficking. And I do think that everyone would have been involved and the only one that wouldn't have been involved was Miles and Miles. - And how about if a person is a Miles? - Miles was the original founding leader of the Sinaloa cartel going back to the 80s along with Chapo Guzman. This is really indicative of tremendous effort that goes back 30 years to bring him to justice. He stood up the cartel. He made it the most powerful cartel in the world from cocaine to methamphetamine to heroin and now recently the fentanyl. Miles, this capture is huge. It's still early to see what the impact will be in Mexico, but it's certainly gonna change, no question about it. - I have here the fentanyl seizures at the Southwest border year to date 14,500 pounds. And we are, you know, that's probably gonna surpass last year's record at 26,000. Also overdose deaths from synthetic opioids, 70,486 in a 12 month period from January to January. So I know that you say it will take a while to make a difference, but could it make some difference pretty quickly? - Yes, I do think it's gonna make a difference. You know, the questions remain right now, Dana, what's gonna happen to Sinaloa? Are they going to fall in line with other cartel leaders? Miles was the godfather within that cartel. So are they gonna be rivals that are now gonna compete for controller routes into the United States? And so that's what we're trying to figure out what the next steps will be for the cartel. fentanyl is their primary means of generating millions upon millions of dollars throughout Mexico and the United States. I don't see that dropping, regardless of who's in charge of the cartel. - Well, El Mayo, and obviously they're not gonna be held together 'cause that could be terrible. But El Mayo, would that be somebody that you'd put like in solitary confinement not allow him to talk to people so that he could try to make an escape? - Absolutely, he's on par with Chapa Guzman. I mean, they were partners that stood up the entire Sinaloa cartel, powerful person, one of the most powerful prime bosses throughout the world. So that's why it goes back to how important this capture is for us. - Right, Donovan, how lucky are we that we had you on the show today? Thank you, you answer. - So, you know, I'm a little bit cynical about whether this will have an effect or not. Obviously, you arrest the big guy, the kingpin, and the second guy in charge. Yeah, it'll be a bump in the road. But there's gonna be like 10, 15, 20 people waiting to get promoted. And here, if you don't believe me, look at this chart here. And I'm sure this chart is a lot bigger than what we're seeing on here. And up at the top, of course, this is the Los Chapitos, who are El Chapa's sons, right? And in the middle is his son who just betrayed the guy who Ishmael Elmao Zambato, who El Chapa started to send a lower cartel. So, I mean, the DEA and our government can take it, can spike the football as they like to say, can celebrate it, and it's a big arrest. But I don't think they'll miss a beat, Mike. - Billy, I remember years ago, and you might even feel might remember this from like the '80s when they got John Gotti. Finally, the feds finally got John Gotti, convicted, he's went to prison. And I think at one point, all the Godfathers from all the five families in New York in the surrounding area were in prison for the first time at the same time doing time together, you know, so that there was the leaders, all the families were in prison. It didn't change anything. There's gonna be a mad scramble for the next leader, but there may be some shooting, and there may be some torturing, and there may be some bloodshed, but the cartel is a business. It will continue. It may be disruptive for a short period of time, but it will continue. We see it today with the mafia in New York City. It's, that's just the way it is. There's too much money to be made for people to just give up and go home. No, it's gonna keep on going. Hopefully, if it may break the dam, and we may get more people willing to come forward, and maybe start giving each other up, like it's a contest to see who can give each other up for reward money, but I don't think that's gonna happen. These guys are tough, nasty, there's too much money. They're violent. They've had this cartel, they've had a member of this cartel for years and years and years, and they've got too much fentanyl coming in from China. It's going right through Mexico, going right into the southwestern United States. We've seen bus where people have been caught with like thousands and thousands and thousands of fentanyl tablets, and they get released on a desk appearance ticket in like the Los Angeles, and you're sitting there going, are you kidding me? But that's the way we do things here. It's asked backwards, and so no wonder that it's gonna keep on going, because we're too easy a target. We're way too easy a target. There's too much money to be made. - Lay Miller from the chat, if it's not going to make a difference, Sergeant Build and why bother? Well, one of the reasons is intelligence, because now Mr. Kingpin, who's 76 years old, how many more years do you think he has on this earth? Do you think there's a good chance that he might cooperate and tell them all about what he knows? There's a very good chance, and you might not think that, but he's 76 years old. He wants to be comfortable in his life, right? The son of El Chapo, he already is cooperating. He's already cooperating with the DEA. And so that's one of the reasons they do it. And of course, the DEA and our government, this is a political arrest too, you know? As I said, they can now go and spike the football and say, look what we did, look what we did. We arrested the number one Kingpin of the Sinaloa cartel. And as I said, it'll be a bump in the road. And then a group or the next guy in line is gonna take over. And I don't think they'll miss a beat. As Mike said, there's too much money involved. These cartels will run like CEOs of companies. They may be cutthroat and one of the ways they do do business is with fear, and they kill people if they don't do what they want, which is a little bit different from corporate America. You would think anyway. But why, the DEA was trying to get this guy for years and years and years, and they must have devised this plan, this sting, if you will, that got him into El Paso, Texas. Now they got him, let's see what happens, you know? The corruption goes right up to the president of Mexico. In the last administration, I think Vicente Fox, they found out his chief of security was being paid off while Vicente Fox was talking in front of the UN. His main bodyguard or his main directive security was on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel. So, you know, I think the only way we could really fight these cartels is through the military, but that's never gonna be approved, you know, to send in US Marines and take out the Sinaloa cartel. I don't think that Mexico would allow us to invade their country to do that, but I think that's what it would take to, and I don't even know if you could rid Mexico of these cartels, but it is a national security problem for all country. How about people that innocently OD from fentanyl? They have no idea that fentanyl drops or whatever was put on a different medication and they die from it. Who's responsible for that? Doesn't our government have a responsibility to its people to protect you from things like that? Drug cartels, you know, human trafficking, all the things they're involved in, 'cause with organized crime comes ridiculous amounts of money. So, let's dabble in human trafficking. There's lots of money in it, there's no risk. Let's dabble in that, you know, the cocaine business and the drug business is a lot riskier. Let's dabble in something, there's almost no risk. Mike. - Yeah, Billy, when Dana Prina was talking to Mr. Donovan about the number of deaths, she quoted the number 70,000. Just think of that, 70,000 deaths, that's the equivalent of how many soldiers died in Vietnam and the Korean War combined. And that's the number, like per year. We're hundreds upon hundreds of thousands and Americans have died in the past three years over fentanyl and cocaine overdose. We see the stuff in the street and people walk around like zombies. I remember seeing them and they're all whacked out. And, you know, they're ready to die. They're just like living skeletons of people with no mind or anything. And so, this is what happened, this is the effect. We have to take some of the blame. Our nation consumes this stuff. The coke and the methamphetamine, the fentanyl, even that, some people are taking fentanyl intentionally. Other people are unfortunately overdosing and they don't even know the touching fentanyl. But we are the biggest consumers. So there's gonna be somebody supplying it and these cartels are supplying it. And they got a huge, where are the huge, they're the market, the supermarket, and we're the consumers. There shouldn't be, there won't be any sort of punitive expedition like the 1916 Army, you know, punitive expedition to America to catch Viva Zapata or whatever his name was back in 1916. We're not gonna do that. We wish we could. I think the only way you could get the U.S. military involved would be if they started to fly some sort of jets loaded with cocaine over American airspace. You can take them out then because they're violating American airspace. But other than that, what sounds like a wonderful idea and people can go, rah, rah, rah, let's do it, would violate every single, you know, treaty. - Now we would violate international law, but so does-- - Yeah, yeah. - So does importing fentanyl and cocaine into our country, causing a national security problem and courting the death of our youth and many others from this invasion from a foreign country, Mexico, that's just inundating our country with these illicit drugs. And here we have, they've been in operation and there's many more cartels than Sinaloa. There's, I think there's four or five more cartels. And they all are brutal, they are all doing the same business and they're in cooperation as like a commission. Just like the five families of New York had a commission and the mafia nationally had a commission. There's a commission that these cartels deal with and they do sit down with each other and they discuss roots and they discuss customers and discuss things so that they don't wind up killing each other, which they do. Sometimes they go to war also. But this is disgraceful. And here we are, July 26th, it's an election year. Let's make it a rest because we haven't made one in a while, at least show the people that were on top of this. And Merrick, all of them was saying, we will not rest until every, yeah, show 'em, show 'em, Merrick, you know, until every cartel, every drug dealer on this earth. I remember when crack hit the streets of New York. - Yeah, it was bad. - It was shocking. It was absolutely shocking to people because for you folks that don't know, crack was a very short high. And I think when it first came out, they were getting like five to $10 per crack. It got cheaper over time. But the high was so short that the person that was using it had to re-up and how are they gonna get the money to re-up? They robbed people. Well, they broke into cause. Oh, they did burglaries, things like that. So the drug train pulled all the seven major crime trains too. The drug train pulled the assault train, pulled the murder train, pulled the burglary train, pulled the robbery train, pulled the sex offender train, pulled it all. And that's why crack was such a huge deal when it hit the streets of the United States back in, I guess it was the late, the middle 80s, the early 80s, probably more like 84, 85 it hit. And New York City and all the major cities in the United States were in shock, you know. And the fentanyl crisis is probably as far as overdose, this is worse than that. Yeah, Billy, I remember working in the foresight with Oggy, you know, Oggy. And the first year we were cops back in '82, '83, you'd see heroin and you'd see marijuana. And that would be about it. You know, the Coke was still the rich man's drug. And then suddenly we heard about, you know, crack and cracks in LA, cracks in Chicago. And then it comes to New York. And the number of deaths and number of shootings that cops had to deal with and everything else skyrocketed, it was unbelievable. We had several years in a row, we had well over 100 homicides a year in the four, six, one square mile, 100 homicides in one small square mile of New York City. Other places had even more. So it lasted, that's crack epidemic last in New York, lasted at least until say 1992, 1991. And it all the shootouts because it was this really new drug, really cheap Coke, like you say, got the high real quick, people could make it back. It was so easy to make and so cheap to make, they used to hand out free samples of it to kids to try to get them hooked. And the money that was so powerful, the money was so much that when it came, people were jockeying over positions on the street, street corners and things like that. And so there was so much money pouring in, so much Coke was pouring in that the shootouts were unbelievable every night they were shootings. And that's the way it went until it got organized. It took years for it to get organized 'cause you have to shoot it out until someone emerges as top dog on that corner or that neighborhood. But it was incredible, incredibly violent. And people think, oh, it doesn't affect us, it only affects people in particular neighborhood and particular cities, no. People, pretty much every family in America probably knows at least one person who's had a Coke overdose or heroin overdose or fentanyl overdose. It just rips through the population, not only the deaths caused by the dealers, but also the deaths of the consumers. And it's a terrible epidemic. Probably more people close to, more people will probably die in the next year or two over fentanyl deaths and die during COVID. - Absolutely. Folks, this is police off the cuff of real crime stories. If you like real crime, true crime, from a police perspective, then you're in the right place. If you're not subscribed, go on our YouTube, hit that subscribe button. Give us a thumbs up, ring that bell, hit the like button, share us with your friends and your family, eat popcorn while you watch us. And if you want to contribute to us financially, we have a Patreon with four different levels. We also have a YouTube channel membership with five different levels. We appreciate all of our fans, our friends, our subscribers from the police off the cuff family. I wanna play this from Fox. - So live now from Fox, I'm Andrew Kraft. We do have some breaking news to get to. We're learning a major arrest was just made by the Department of Justice here. We're guarding drug cartels and drug trafficking. This is quite the big kahuna here. So this is what we know that the Justice Department just issued the following statement from attorney general, Merrick Garland, on the arrest of alleged leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael Zambada Garcia, also known as El Mayo and Joaquin Guzman Lopez. And you see their mug shots there before you. So and we're learning, I wanna put the statement up from Merrick Garland, let's read it here as well. Garland says this, the Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa cartel. One of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world, Ismael Zambada Garcia or El Mayo, co-founder of the cartel and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of its other co-founder. We're arrested today in El Paso, Texas. Now the son of its other co-founder, that's referring to El Chapo there as well. Now Garland goes on to say in the statement, both men are facing multiple charges in the United States for leading the cartel's criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks. He goes on to say El Mayo and Guzman Lopez, join a growing list of Sinaloa cartel leaders and associates who the Justice Department is holding accountable in the United States. That includes the cartel's other co-founder, Joaquin Guzman Loera or El Chapo, another of El Chapo's sons and an alleged cartel leader, Ovidio Guzman Lopez and the cartel's alleged lead Sicario, Nestor Isidro Perez-Salas or El Nini. So we're learning that these arrests took place today in El Paso, Texas. Let's put up their mugshots yet again here. You can see them right now. So this is quite significant here. Reading more from the Associated Press that the US government had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture, referring to El Mayo, the historic leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, now in the custody of the US Department of Justice as well, as well as Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of another infamous cartel leader being El Chapo. They were both arrested today by US authorities in El Paso, Texas. So like I said, this is quite something. Remember in recent years, El Chapo's sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the Little Chapos or Chapitos that has been identified as one of the main exporters of fentanyl to the US market. Now you'll remember El Chapo Guzman was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019. You'll remember that that case was prosecuted and adjudicated in Brooklyn, New York, back out there to some more of this video. Now, you'll remember that they were seen as more violent and flamboyant than Zombada. Their security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November. One of them, a video Guzman Lopez, was arrested and extradited to the US last year. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago in September. So this is, like I said, a family affair of El Chapo Guzman, his sons and this other, like I said, big Kahuna El Mayo there with the operations of the Simuloa drug cartel now being quite hampered and impeded by these arrests today. Also, you can get the sense that there was cooperation between Mexican and American authorities as well. So I wanted to make sure we got this story into you going forward. So more though, on Zombada, he was one of the longest surviving capos in Mexico. He was considered the strategist of the Simuloa cartel more involved in day-to-day operations than his flashier and better known boss El Chapo. Strong ties though to Colombian cocaine suppliers and his cells across the US made Zombada one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world. He'd been among the leaders of the Simuloa cartel since the 1970s with their principal livelihood being the sale of narcotics in the United States. So, and you can see there the evolution of kind of the drug trade with some of these cartels to our neighbors down south there in Mexico from cocaine to heroin. A lot of these narcotics and then ultimately ending in the very deadly narcotic fentanyl there. So I wanted to make sure, like I said, we got this breaking news in as well. - You know, Mike, first of all, I disagree with this reporter that this will make a huge dent in the drug trade. I think it will just be a bump in the road and there'll be. - And look, I'm not trying to be cynical. I just know the way it works. And the break is real that this arrest was made in a political year, the presidential election, a lot of the Senator of Congress elections are this November, smells of the worst type of politics. Why did you wait so long to do this, you know? And the drugs are still pouring across the border, illegal immigrants are pouring across the border and you just decide to, it was in negotiations for three years with his, here he is, with Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Three years, in fact, he has a case in Chicago. So this deal he cut to give them Ishmael L. Myo Zombara was in negotiations for three years. And they decided for whatever reason, the perfect storm existed, the roofs worked. They got them on the plane. They got them to El Paso, Texas. They got them on the ground. Now he's on US soil. Let's lock them up. But what is it gonna do, in my mind, to arrest a 76-year-old man? Again, he's the leader of this Sinaloa drug cartel. He's ruthless, I'm sure. He's probably got hundreds of bodies on him, but there will be a guy, right, in the wings, ready to take his seat today or tomorrow or the next day. So I don't see how this is, and again, I hate to be cynical, I was born at night, but not last night. Billy, working in law enforcement makes you a very cynical person, 'cause you see the reality on the street of people. It's hard to think that this is gonna really change anything, and I'd hate for anybody to think that it will. Yeah, there'll be some disruption for a while, for a period of time, but there's too much money to be made. And so they'll work it out among themselves. Again, there might be a death or two here and there. There might be some jockeying position. There might be some other cartels involved, trying to figure out who's gonna be in the Sinaloa cartels front seat, driver's seat. But yeah, don't anybody think that because this is done, this one huge deal in three years, who was taken down in 2021, or 2022, or 2023, or in 2024, it's not really gonna have an effect that people are gonna say, "Oh my goodness, "the streets are gonna be cleaner, "the sun's gonna be brighter, "there'll be less fentanyl deaths, "there'll be less cocaine overdoses, "there'll be less methamphetamine on the street." No, no, no, it's still gonna be there. It's still gonna be there. - You know, the big thing is, Mike, is that this has to be attacked from a political arena, from slapping the government of Mexico with tariffs, cutting down trade with them, hurting them in the "Apocket" book, because they're obviously, and if they can't battle the drug cartels, well, we can help you do that, but you have to allow us to bring our personnel onto Mexico to fight this battle, because there's no one safe in Mexico, as long as these cartels operate, and as long as they have the amount of money they have, that they can just bribe whoever they need to bribe, $1 million a month, the Sinaloa cartel has to bribe people. That can make people do some crazy things, you know? And all of the other cartels, I'm sure they have the same budgets. So what is the answer? And the DEA, I mean, look, these guys are amazing. The ATF, the FBI, the guys that go over to Mexico, that bilingual, they fight that drug war, that's an alleged drug war, and try to protect the people of this country, but it's still, it's going on, because it's mired by soft, soft politics. - Yeah, Billy, we saw this, and I alluded to it before. That was two guys in LA, they were getting across, coming across the border in a truck. It was like huge boxes full of fentanyl tablets, and it was thousands and thousands of these tablets, maybe hundreds of thousands of tablets. They got a desk appearance ticket. They were released by a judge. And like, we have no idea who they are. 'Cause they're not in our system, they would just release them. And like, oh, they'll come back in 60 days. Oh yeah, sure they will. Like, it's like, what are you doing? Like, what is going on with our prosecutors and our judges? What suddenly, why have they suddenly lost their mind, and suddenly lost all kind of common sense? We are, if we're fighting a war, let's actually fight it. Let's not sit there and pretend these are just regular criminals, like a guy with, you know, a couple of hundred thousand fentanyl tablets is the same as a guy who, I don't know, stole the candy bar from Walmart. Come on, it's not. These people are in a different league. It's not, it's terrible. And the amount of a crime, I used to think about this in a four or six when I was a cop. If you live in an apartment building, and you got like one person addicted to say Coke, you know, your apartment's gonna get broken into, your stuff is gonna get stolen, they're gonna steal your car out front, they're gonna damage your property. This, they're like, the drug addicts in your building are like termites eating the wood on your porch. They're gonna, it's gonna fall apart because this is what they do 24 hours a day, seven days a week, looking to make money to buy drugs. And we have too many people hooked on this stuff. And it's partly our fault. I gotta say that, it's partly our fault as an American society. We are the consumers of this junk. And so, you know, somebody's gonna supply it. Some bad dudes are supplying it. And this is what we got to deal with. - Absolutely. Let me play a little bit from ABC. - Ismail Zambada, nicknamed El Mayo, ran the powerful cartel for decades alongside its notorious leader, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. The US government had offered a reward of $15 million US dollars for his arrest. Guzman's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, was also taken into custody. US officials say they were arrested after landing in a private plane and will face charges related to running the criminal network and manufacturing and trafficking fentanyl throughout the US. Well, for more on this, I'm joined now by Professor Juan Carlos Montero from the Monterey Institute of Technology. Professor Montero, welcome. - Thank you very much. - Just how significant are these arrests? - Well, these arrests are very important because the cartel of Sinaloa is the main enemy from the United States because of the smuggling of fentanyl in the country. And because of the electoral campaign right now, it's going to be a big issue that the tension, especially from El Mayo, Zambada. It's also important to mention the role of video Guzman who was detained some months ago. And some reports are saying that he was released some days ago. And then the structure of the cartel of Sinaloa is going to move in the next days. - Yeah, I want to talk to you about how this will impact on that cartel and other smaller ones, but just how bigger operation was it to getting these men into custody, to detaining these men? - It implied an important negotiation from the DEA and the Chapitos, especially because the Chapitos and El Mayo, Zambada had serious issues on disputing the leadership of cartels in El Mayoa. So we kind of hypothesize that they negotiated with the DEA because this wasn't an operation from the DEA. It looks like they turn themselves into custody for the DEA. We can mention also that perhaps it was a treason from the Chapitos to El Mayoa, but at the end, it was they are turning themselves in and it wasn't a detention from the DEA in Mexico. - So this was a betrayal to a partner who they sold something, believe me, they traded something for turning him in and probably their own freedom. So this is not going to have a huge effect on the drug trade. I think it's good that they made this arrest, but I smell politics all over this and we'll see where it goes from here. Mike, your final thoughts. - Final thoughts. Thank you everyone for tuning in today and just be a little bit cynical. Just take it with the grain of salt. This is like Bill said, this is good, but will it change anything? Yeah, I wouldn't bet my paycheck on it, but that's 'cause that's what we've seen. We've seen this. I remember this kind of stuff going on 40 years ago in the Bronx, so I don't think it'll change, but I try to be optimistic, but I have a pessimist because I've seen this stuff. So fingers crossed, we'll see. - Folks, thank you so much for tuning in this afternoon. This is Police Off the Cuff, Real Crime Stories. This case I think is pretty important, but as Mike said, take it with a grain of salt because it's the political season. Have a great day everyone. We'll talk to you next time. - Okay. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ You made a big city ♪