FGR: Mexico has asked the US four times for the extradition of Mayo Zambada

MEXICO CITY.- This Tuesday, during the usual morning press conference of the president of Mexico , Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo , the head of the Attorney General's Office (FGR), Alejandro Gertz Manero , participated.

In his speech, Gertz Manero assured that the Attorney General's Office (FGR) has asked the United States four times for the extradition of Ismael 'el Mayo' Zambada , who last Friday demanded his repatriation to Mexico with the argument that they kidnapped him in order to hand him over.

"The procedure to which this person refers is a requirement that has already been complied with and in full," said the head of the FGR.

Prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero recalled that since last year the US has been asked for the extradition of Mayo Zambada and an investigation file for kidnapping has been opened. He reports that there has been no response from the US. pic.twitter.com/NLaxUBF1Je

— JorgeArmandoRocha (@JorgeArmandoR_) February 25, 2025

The prosecutor stated that, since the capture of the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel on July 25, 2024, the FGR "initiated an extradition procedure before the North American authorities for this person who had left the country against his will , who has three valid arrest warrants ."

“Not only did we submit it immediately, but in December of last year, the United States Department of State acknowledged that it already had that requirement. We have insisted on four occasions before the previous Administration (of Joe Biden, 2017-2021) of the American Government and we have not had a response,” he said.

Last Friday it was announced that “El Mayo” Zambada delivered a letter to the Mexican Consulate in New York in which he believes that the Mexican Government “must intervene” in his case and request his repatriation “so that the present matter does not result in a collapse in the bilateral relationship between both countries.”

Gertz Manero, who stressed that this extradition request “has already been fulfilled,” argued that “it is an obligation” of Mexico to provide consular assistance to Zambada, according to the Vienna Convention , although he clarified that he has not had contact with the drug lord’s lawyers.

"This is not an exceptional case, for better or worse, it is exactly the same, so what this request (by Zambada) is doing is referring to facts that are technically and legally very clear and that are not in doubt," he argued.

The FGR considers Zambada's arrest in the United States a "kidnapping" because, although no US agents were involved in Mexico, he was betrayed by Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of Joaquín 'el Chapo' Guzmán , who put him on a plane to hand him over.

"Since July of last year, when these events occurred, the Government of the Republic and, therefore, the Attorney General's Office immediately initiated proceedings for a series of crimes that were committed in Mexico , the crime of kidnapping, the illegal transportation of a person against his or her will," the prosecutor explained.

These events have caused a conflict between the Los Chapitos and Los Mayos factions of the Sinaloa Cartel since September 9, which has accumulated more than 800 murders since then, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).

The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch , stated that since Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo's presidency began in October, 899 people have been arrested, which has "weakened" both factions.

"It is a constant weakening of criminal structures , with the aim of not generating violence, the violence that they themselves unleashed in the entity," he said now.— (By Pedro Pablo Cortés ).