Two top figures in Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel in US custody: Justice Dept

Two top leaders of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, including its co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, were arrested on Thursday in Texas, the US Department of Justice said.

"Ismael Zambada Garcia, or 'El Mayo,' cofounder of the Cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of its other cofounder, were arrested today in El Paso, Texas," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement, calling the cartel "one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world."

The pair face "multiple charges in the United States for leading the Cartel's criminal operations, including its deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks," Garland said.

The United States saw more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fentanyl accounted for about 70 percent of them.

The US government says fentanyl is often made from products sourced in China, and then is smuggled across the border from Mexico by drug traffickers, especially the Sinaloa cartel.