in 2018 joaquin el chapo guzman was
tried for his crimes as a kingpin
against the united states of america and
its people but guzman claimed himself
innocent a victim in fact who was used
as a forced pawn by the cartel's true
leader he wasn't talking about his old
friend hector palma salazar aka aguero
but he was talking about the man who
allegedly climbed the ladders of drug
trafficking and used the opportunity to
fulfill potential when miguel felix's
drug empire crashed down and he did it
all while lurking in the shadows
welcome to nutty history and today let's
explore the untold story of ishmael
zambada garcia aka el mayo
despite el chapo's claim in court
hundreds and thousands of pages of
evidence were presented along with
several witnesses who confirmed that el
chapo was indeed the head of the snake
known as the sinaloa cartel and there
was no doubt about it on february 12
2019 guzman was found guilty on all
counts and was sentenced in july of 2019
to life and 30 years along with millions
of dollars in fines but guzman's
attorneys kept on reiterating that el
mayo was pulling the strings by
influencing evidence and witnesses
bribing officials on both sides of the
border and doing everything else that
could be done to have guzman convicted
chapel guzman's lead lawyer said that
the world was focusing on this mythical
el chapo creature when the real monster
is hiding and controlling his case
externally miles zambada chapel had a
long history of escaping prisons and
having his organization stand behind him
in the worst of times but this time he
was publicly renouncing his successor
and accusing him of selling out or if we
take chapel's accusation at face value
framing him
what changed did mayo have a hand in
chapel's arrest and extradition to
complete his ascension to the throne of
the sinaloa cartel and become who could
be termed as the world's last remaining
true drug lord the answer to that
question is sadly
a mystery
as zambada may or may not have
influenced chapel's fall from the
shadows he sure did manage his career as
a trafficker using incognito methods and
rose to the echelons of the leadership
it began with one bad kidnapping in the
death of a dea agent in mexico in the
following years the entire empire of the
godfather came crashing down like
dominoes one of the biggest drug
trafficking corporations the world has
ever seen the guadalajara cartel
splintered into factions as the top
management was pursued by u.s law
enforcement with the cooperation of the
mexican authorities this splintering
caused the guadalajara cartel to split
into three factions the juarez cartel
led by amaro carrigo fuentes and rafael
aguilar guajaro the tijuana cartel led
by the ariana felix brothers who were
nephews and nieces of miguel felix
gallardo and the sinaloa cartel led by
el palma el chapo and el azul el mayo
was a fisherman who was working as a
freelancer a small-time drug trafficker
back then he was smuggling only a few
kilograms of smack in mj and slowly
gained a foothold in recognition in the
elite circles of drug lords the top
couples the sinaloa cartel was at a
major disadvantage because they had no
option but to smuggle their shipments
through the territories of the tijuana
cartel this caused a conflict between
the two factions this influenced the
trigger happy ramone to terminate
guzman's two associates armando el rayo
lopez and iguerto campos salcido the two
factions were now engaged in an all-out
war against each other
after guzman failed to terminate the
ariana felix brothers he recruited
ishmael zambada garcia for his exemplary
skill of forming alliances in
coordinating with other cartels u.s
state department records state that
zambada aka el mayo first became a
member of the juarez cartel under armada
carrillo fuentes el mayo worked with
both carrillo and guzman to help the two
cartels flourish el mayo also managed to
clean up and assimilate the remains of
the widest cartel into the sinaloa
cartel after our model cardio's death in
1997.
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in 1992 the family of el mayo zambada
was celebrating his son seraphine
zambada ortiz's second birthday when a
car was destroyed outside his birthday
party clearly it was meant for el mayo
and his entire family including the
birthday boy
el mayo's efforts to grow the sinaloa
cartel's influence and territory were
far from peaceful
according to an interview with a
newspaper company leticia ortiz the
mother of sadafine recalled how their
family was living every day as their
last day from the year 1992 to the year
2000
a stupid senseless war she would say
where many families were destroyed and
with a lot of pain in their hearts
that's how she described the biggest
drug war mexico witnessed
however el mayo didn't share her
compassion for others and used this war
for his personal benefit in every way
possible by the dawn of the 21st century
el mayo was the king maker
authorities had to recognize el mayo
zombata garcia as one of the most
powerful drug traffickers in mexico
it was estimated that omayo was
smuggling thousands of tons of colombian
candy hot and smack
he had built a powerful drug trafficking
network to funnel narcotics from
colombia to the united states
mexican authorities indicted him in 1998
but nobody dared to touch him or even
find him
two decades of violence intimidation and
wealth accumulated from smuggling
narcotics all over the world and that
put the cena lower cartel on top one of
the leading sinaloa newspapers in their
piece on the multi-billion dollar cartel
mentioned why nobody would dare touch el
mayo because he owns the entire police
department of the city
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el mayo or ishmael zambada garcia was
born in the alamo community of kulyakan
the state capital of sinaloa like many
other drug dealers he too was a product
of a desperate childhood the early tough
life of a poor farming family set him on
the path of crime at the very young age
of 16 and he had a natural talent for it
he started small but he grew in the
ranks fast and was a recognized member
of the guadalajara cartel before the sun
set on the empire miguel felix around
the same time he started an affair with
leticia ortiz a psychology graduate who
lived in the same neighborhood as him
despite her family's objection she
continued the affair with him and bore
him a son seraphine
leticia paid the price of not listening
to her parents in the worst way possible
her parents brother and sister were put
to rest in a single attempt at a
mazatlan hotel
the intended target was her and her son
for the sole reason of being in maya's
family but as fate would have it she
wasn't there when assassins arrived
the constant threats kept sadafing's
world very small as a child moving from
place to place under the watchful eye of
his mother at times staying hidden
indoors while other children got to play
soccer it was like a golden cage
according to sedifine and ironically his
childhood was no better than the
poverty-stricken childhood of his father
and yet after all that sadafine joined
his father's business and ended up
spending his best years in prison the
rest of el mayo's family isn't doing
great either as his current wife rosario
nibla cardoza and brother jesus both are
wanted criminals along with charges
imposed upon his four daughters maria
teresa miriam patricia monica de rosario
and modesta as well his other son
vicente zambara nibla is also in prison
today the sinaloa cartel is responsible
for more than six kinds of narcotics
tons of shipments of these narcotics
arrive at north american ports and
borders el miles operations are like
clockwork working 24 hours a day and
seven days a week his distribution hubs
are allegedly present in phoenix los
angeles denver atlanta and chicago the
cartel received shipments from colombia
and panama and the illicit drugs are
distributed through various crossing
points along the border el mayo uses
every single method to transport to
goods including planes trucks boats even
submarines the distribution centers are
responsible for the goods once a mile
gets them to the other side of the
border securely which is no easy task
but how did the sinaloa cartel become so
powerful violence the answer to such
questions is always violence of course
el mayo was rather adept at coordinating
criminal efforts with equally powerful
figures in the industry but controlling
territory and amassing larger pieces of
the proverbial pie required a ruthless
indifference toward violence that el
mayo didn't lack the consolidations of
the wattas cartel and the sinaloa cartel
after our model cardio's death were not
the prettiest of times
while el chapo was jailed from 1993 to
2001 el mayo took the reins and oversaw
the sinaloa cartels expansion
it was el mayo who sent a private
helicopter to el chapo after he escaped
from puente grande so it's of little
wonder while el mayo has often been
credited with el chapo's rise after his
first escape from prison
even when el mayo got indicted in 1998
not long after that mexican president
felipe calderon decided to primarily
target the tijuana cartel the biggest
rival of the sinaloans needless to say
with the heat on its back and his rivals
being weakened the sinaloa cartel took
advantage of its rival's weakness and
pushed ahead with full force to dominate
its territories while the tijuana cartel
crumbled in the 2000s the sinaloa cartel
became the sole organization to operate
at the caliber of how the cali cartel
and miguel felix used to run their
operations in their peak days
and while chapel was jumping in and out
of prison elmile was pulled into strings
he was no longer a king maker but the
king himself
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after the first indictment by mexican
authorities in 1998 el mayo was indicted
by the american authorities as well in
2003
he forged ahead of el chapo until the
head of the sinaloa cartel was finally
behind bars for good in 2016. despite
that el mayo has remained untouchable
unfindable and unreachable el mayo has
been charged with employing cecadios or
hitmen to carry out hundreds of acts of
violence and regular business affairs
in current times chapel guzman's friends
and relatives are fighting within
themselves to grab a piece of his empire
it's believed that omayo is the one in
control for real mediating them and
providing all of them an umbrella to
work within
according to authorities el mayo also
has a diverse portfolio as he has
invested in many industries all over
mexico and the 72 year old drug lord is
far from being done
he claimed in an interview that nobody
would ever find his hideout in the
mountains of sinaloa he also boasted
that he keeps moving and will never slow
down or get sloppy like el chapel
tell us in the comments how you think el
mayo could be brought to justice and as
always thanks for watching nutty history
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