El Chapo's former partner El Mayo reportedly planning to kill jailed drug lord's sons in order to seize full control of the Sinaloa cartel
One of the oldest drug lords of Mexico, Ismael Zambada Garcia, better known as El Mayo, has threatened to kill all the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin Guzman aka El Chapo to take over the Sinaloa Cartel's multi-billion-dollar empire. The 71-year-old is reportedly among the last remaining members of the original cartel and he wants to completely eliminate his former partner in a bid to attempt a bloody takeover of the secretive crime organization based in Mexico.
According to The Sun, the elderly drug lord believes that he is the person to take the cartel forward. El Mayo is a very elusive figure, and despite being hunted by America's Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for close to forty years, has managed to stay under the radar. According to Gladys McCormick, a professor at Syracuse University and expert on Mexico’s political violence, he has "never been in prison, he’s very rarely seen."
“He’s sort of the one guy who was left standing," she says, elaborating on how he let El Chapo be the face of the operation because he loved the limelight while he kept a low profile. After two prison escapes, 62-year-old El Chapo is currently in prison after getting captured by local marines and the DEA from Mexico in 2016. He was found guilty on 10 charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, despite El Chapo's absence, the crime rate and cartel shipments to the United States is on the rise, and it is owed to the rise in power of El Mayo. However, to fully take over the cartel, he needs to deal with his ex-partner's sons, Ivan Archivaldo, and Jesus Alfredo, known together as Los Chapitos or Little Shorties. According to the DEA, Los Chapitos, who are "dumber than rocks," however, offer no real threat to El Mayo, who remains a ghost, even resorting to plastic surgery and other disguises to avoid capture.
According to former DEA chief of operations, Jack Riley, “Mayo is the most powerful drug trafficker. I even think we have underestimated his influence and power in controlling the US drug market.”