The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) is investigating the possible participation of Ovidio Guzmán, alias The Mousein the kidnapping of Ismael The May Zambada. This was announced by the Mexican authorities on Thursday. Guzmán, son of El Chapo, was extradited to the United States in September of last year, but appears as “released” in the American prison system since July 23, two days before the capture of his brother Joaquín Guzmán López and Zambada at a rural airport in New Mexico. The FGR said it has evidence that El Ratón left a high-security prison that day, but acknowledged that it does not know his whereabouts or whether he is still in custody. The institution stated that it is seeking to determine whether he was involved in the fall of El Mayo, as was his brother Joaquín, the main suspect of having turned him in.
“The link between the situation and location of Ovidio ‘G’; the participation of his brother Joaquín in the alleged kidnapping of Ismael ‘N’; the violence with which it was carried out; as well as the evident irregularities of the plane and the flight of the kidnapping; are fundamental matters of the investigation of this Institution, for the crimes committed in Mexico,” said the FGR in a statement. The letter published on August 11 by El Mayo, founder and major drug trafficker of the Sinaloa Cartel, is already integrated into the investigation file opened in Mexico and has become the main line of investigation of the case.
The Prosecutor’s Office is looking at the chronological sequence of Zambada’s arrest and questions why Ovidio Guzmán was released from prison a couple of days earlier. The Federal Public Ministry is investigating whether Ovidio’s release from prison had to do with the negotiations that his brother Joaquín Guzmán held for years with the US authorities to agree on his surrender. “The Attorney General of the United States, on August 16, 2024, stated to this institution that Ismael ‘N’ arrived in that country against his will and that he had become aware of several proposals from Joaquín ‘N’ to surrender to the US authorities,” says the FGR. Despite the allegations, there is still no formal accusation against Ovidio Guzmán. Jeffrey Lichtman, lawyer for the Guzmán family, declared at the end of July that “there was no agreement” between his clients and the authorities.
The controversy over the alleged release of El Ratón and its relation to the arrest of El Mayo emerged just hours after the arrest of Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, alias The Güero. The United States ambassador, Ken Salazar, assured a day after the arrest that El Chapo’s son was still in the custody of his country. “I can confirm that Ovidio Guzmán López remains detained in the United States,” it said in a statement, without giving details.
“The US embassy informed us that he has definitely not been released. [Ovidio Guzmán]there is a change in the precautionary measure,” said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Secretary of Security, in the first press conference of the Mexican Government, one day after the arrest. The American prison system has not updated the information on the capo for a month and he continues to appear as “released.” The doubts surrounding El Ratón open a new front of tensions between the governments of both countries, with the FGR openly questioning that the legal situation of El Chapo’s son has not been clarified.
Mexican authorities have again accused their US counterparts of failing to provide key information in the case. The Attorney General’s Office said it has made two requests for information through legal means regarding the identity of the pilot and the official authorizations for the landing of the plane in which both drug lords were traveling on US territory. Another request was made through Interpol, but the FGR has not received a response.
The FGR also presented new findings about the plane that landed at Doña Ana Airport, in the border town of Santa Teresa (New Mexico), on July 25. It was a Beechcraft 200 aircraft, which was already inspected by Mexican authorities. It had a “false and superimposed” registration and serial number, and the original registrations were identified. “The legal registration of that plane was N44JN and the original legal serial number BB191,” the authorities said. The plane was first registered in the United States in 2019 and then in Colombia, where it obtained a registration from that country. In 2021, the apocryphal registration was made in US territory.
Regarding the murder of former rector and politician Héctor Cuén, the FGR announced that it will summon “public servants from all levels of the local Prosecutor’s Office, including police officers and experts, who have participated in the proceedings” following irregularities in the version of the Sinaloa authorities regarding his death. Claudia Sánchez Kondo took office on Wednesday as the new head of the state Prosecutor’s Office following the resignation of Sara Bruna Quiñónez two weeks ago. Cuén was murdered on July 25, in events that are related to the kidnapping and capture of Zambada, according to the FGR.
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