Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that top Sinaloa cartel leaders are in U.S. custody as the fentanyl crisis continues. Mayorkas made the statement in a July 25 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press release.
"The Sinaloa Cartel pioneered the manufacture of fentanyl and has for years trafficked it into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and devastating countless communities," said Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "The Biden-Harris Administration has taken a relentless, unprecedented, and comprehensive approach to combating the scourge of fentanyl. Today, two of the Cartel's alleged top leaders – Ismael Zambada Garcia (“El Mayo”) and Joaquin Guzman Lopez – are in U.S. custody and will be brought to justice. I commend the dedicated, brave agents and officers of Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI whose years of work, alongside others in the law enforcement community, have, at great personal sacrifice, disrupted and dismantled cartel operations across the world."
According to CBS News, two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, were arrested on July 25. Lopez is the son of El Chapo, the cartel's founder. Charges against the men include trafficking of fentanyl.
The 2024 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) National Drug Threat Assessment names fentanyl the deadliest drug in American history, taking the lives of 38,000 Americans in the first six months of 2023. The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are responsible for the presence of fentanyl in the United States, producing the drug in Mexico and smuggling it into the United States for profit. The Sinaloa cartel earns billions of dollars from their fentanyl and drug trafficking operations.
Mayorkas has served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2021, according to the DHS website. He formerly served as Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
