Mexico waiting on U.S. for flight details behind capture of drug kingpins

By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's attorney general's office said on Thursday it has yet to receive detailed information from U.S. authorities about a flight that carried two notorious drug traffickers to the U.S. last month, amid rising tensions between the two countries over the arrests.

In a statement, the office said it requested details from the U.S. Department of Justice about the flight, including detailed records on its pilot, the aircraft, and related migration and customs authorizations.

Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, a co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, was detained on July 25 at a New Mexico airfield along with one of the sons of his incarcerated Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Mexico is investigating the events to determine whether treason was committed via the forcible abduction of a Mexican citizen and their delivery to U.S. authorities.

The dramatic arrest was a major coup for U.S. law enforcement but has provoked consternation from the Mexican government, which was not given prior warning and was not involved.

Zambada, through his lawyer, has said he was taken against his will by El Chapo's son Joaquin Guzman Lopez.

Guzman Lopez's lawyer has denied Zambada was forcibly taken, saying it was a voluntary surrender.

Authorities say the two main factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, one headed by Zambada and the other headed by El Chapo's sons, have at times had a rocky relationship since El Chapo's 2016 capture.

The statement on Thursday said the U.S. had allowed Mexican authorities to investigate the airfield in New Mexico but that it had not helped answer the questions they still have.

Mexican investigators added they have identified a clandestine airstrip in Sinaloa from which the flight is believed to have departed.

The attorney general's office also said it had uncovered evidence concerning the murder of recently elected federal lawmaker, Hector Cuen.

Zambada alleges Cuen was present at the meeting between himself and Guzman Lopez and was killed in the ensuing ambush. Sinaloan authorities, in contrast, had said it appeared Cuen was killed at a gas station in Culiacan.

In the statement, the attorney general's office said the investigation of Cuen's murder had been poorly conducted by state authorities and that the victim's body had four gunshot wounds whereas in a video circulated of the alleged gas station murder only one gunshot could be heard.

The Sinaloan state attorney's office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

On Wednesday, Sinaloan prosecutors said they were also investigating the disappearance of two bodyguards who had not been seen since the day of the arrests.

U.S. ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said last week that no U.S. personnel were on the ground when Zambada and Guzman Lopez boarded the plane that took them to the U.S.

"No U.S. resources were used in the surrender. It was not our plane, nor our pilot, nor our people," he said in a statement.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Sonali Paul)