--- title: "Mexico Investigates Whether the FBI Overstepped in the Capture of El Mayo" description: "Mexico says it is investigating whether US agencies violated its sovereignty in the 2024 capture of Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, after the FBI publicly displayed the plane used to fly him to the United States. Officials say the accounts of how he was taken do not add up." category: "World" category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world author: "Liam Fitzgerald" published: 2026-07-09T07:44:00.000Z updated: 2026-07-09T07:44:00.000Z canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/mexico-investigates-whether-the-fbi-overstepped-in-the-capture-of-el-mayo tags: ["mexico", "united-states", "sinaloa-cartel", "sovereignty", "drug-trafficking"] --- # Mexico Investigates Whether the FBI Overstepped in the Capture of El Mayo Mexico says it is investigating whether US agencies violated its sovereignty in the 2024 capture of Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, after the FBI publicly displayed the plane used to fly him to the United States. Officials say the accounts of how he was taken do not add up. Mexico's government says it is examining whether United States agencies broke Mexican law and violated the country's sovereignty in the 2024 capture of Ismael Zambada, the veteran drug lord known as "El Mayo," reviving a politically charged dispute over how one of the world's most-wanted men ended up in American custody. ## How he got to the US Zambada, a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in July 2024 after landing on a small plane in the United States. According to court proceedings, he was brought there by Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of the imprisoned cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who later admitted in a US court to having orchestrated the operation. Zambada himself has said he was lured to a meeting near Culiacán, then ambushed, restrained and flown out of Mexico against his will, [Al Jazeera reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/10/i-was-ambushed-sinaloa-drug-cartel-leader-el-mayo-details-capture). ## Why Mexico is asking now The fresh scrutiny follows the FBI's public display of the aircraft said to have been used, which Mexican officials took as a sign of deeper US involvement than Washington had acknowledged. At the time, the US Embassy said no American agency had taken part in the operation, [CBS News reported](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-investigating-us-violations-capture-sinaloa-cartel-leader/). Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that if a US agency did participate on Mexican soil, it would breach international agreements and Mexico's constitution, and a senior official said the competing accounts meant that "someone lied." Newsparlor could not independently reconcile the differing versions. ## The sovereignty question At the heart of the matter is a sensitive principle: whether US law enforcement operated inside Mexico, or helped remove a suspect from it, without Mexican authorization. Mexico has long been wary of unilateral US action against cartels on its territory, and successive governments have insisted that any cooperation respect Mexican sovereignty. The dispute over Zambada's capture crystallizes that concern in a single, high-profile case. ## The wider strain The investigation lands amid broader friction between the two governments over how to confront the cartels, including US pressure for a tougher, more direct approach and Mexican resistance to foreign forces operating within its borders. How Mexico's inquiry proceeds, and how far it presses Washington for answers, will be a test of a relationship that is central to both countries and, at present, under strain. For now, the facts of the capture remain contested, and the US has not publicly reconciled its earlier denial with the FBI's later display of the plane. ## Sources - [Mexico investigating possible US violation in the 2024 capture of a cartel leader: 'Someone lied'](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-investigating-us-violations-capture-sinaloa-cartel-leader/) - ['I was ambushed': Sinaloa cartel leader El Mayo details his capture](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/10/i-was-ambushed-sinaloa-drug-cartel-leader-el-mayo-details-capture)