‘Nada cambia’: Mexican drugs lord ‘El Mayo’ has been captured, but does targeting kingpins work?

Ismael Zambada García, architect of the powerful Sinaloa narco-syndicate was arrested last week. A writer who has closely followed Mexico’s crime organisations traces his deadly career

They are the most significant arrests on the battlefield of global narco-traffic since that of the world’s most famous criminal, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, in 2016. This time it was the turn of Guzmán’s son, also called Joaquín – and the cartel’s co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García.

El Mayo, who pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking and money laundering at a special court in El Paso, Texas, on Friday, is the crucial figure in the Sinaloa syndicate, still among the biggest and most powerful in the world. He is the architect of the modern drug cartel as corporation.