Mexico claims US reached deal with drug lord to remove brother from prison

Mexico’s attorney general’s office also accused U.S. authorities of failing to respond to requests for information about the case. The office said the small plane the two men were travelling in had multiple registration and identification numbers, some of which were fake.

The charges from Mexico City are related to events in July, when U.S. security services captured the son of influential drug cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán López (pictured right) and El Chapo’s longtime associate Ismael Sambada, or “El Majo” (pictured left). The recent arrivals came as a surprise to the Americans, who learned only at the last minute of the possibility of arresting the underworld authority they had been seeking for decades.

There have since been multiple versions of how “El Mayo” ended up in the hands of U.S. authorities. Initially, reports said Guzmán deceived her and lured her onto a plane to the U.S. with false claims. Later, it was reported that “El Majo” was kidnapped and forcibly taken to the U.S.

U.S. officials have denied any involvement in the plot or orchestrating the flight and said they learned of it only after the plane took off from northern Mexico.

The Mexican government has previously said it wants to bring treason charges against Joaquin Guzman Lopez, but not for his links to the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Instead, Mexican prosecutors have accused Guzman of kidnapping “El Mayo.” The Mexican prosecutor’s office said two of Sambada’s bodyguards, who disappeared after the kidnapping, had been killed.

The younger Guzman apparently planned to surrender himself to U.S. authorities, but he may have taken the Zambada with him as a “prize” to free his previously arrested half-brother, Ovidio Guzman, from a U.S. prison. Mexican prosecutors said this version of events was true and said “the connection between the identity of Ovidio G (who was arrested) and the involvement of his brother Joaquin in the alleged kidnapping of Ismael (Zambada) (..) is the main focus of the investigation”.

In late July, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Ovidio Guzman’s detention status had changed, but did not specify what had happened. U.S. and Mexican officials have since said Ovidio is still in custody, just not in the same location. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said Ovidio Guzman is “not on the streets.” “He’s in jail,” Salazar said, “and we’re going to try him the way the Department of Justice does.”