After Drug Lord's Arrest, Possible Treason Charges

Mexican prosecutors say they may bring treason charges against those involved in the alleged abduction of Sinaloa drug cartel leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada. Zambada had a $15 million US bounty on his head when he and Joaquín Guzmán López, son of imprisoned cartel co-founder Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, were arrested near El Paso, Texas, last month. Guzmán López claims both had chosen to surrender to US charges, per Reuters. But Zambada claims he was intending to meet Sinaloa Gov. Richa Moya when Guzmán López and other men tied him to the seat of a US-bound plane. "I was kidnapped and brought to the US forcibly and against my will," Zambada writes in a letter, per CBS News.

The letter includes bombshell claims, including that one of Zambada's bodyguards was a commander in the state Judicial Police and that the killing of federal lawmaker Hector Cuen, officially attributed to a carjacking, was in fact tied to the scheme, per El Pais. Zambada claims he saw Cuen at a meeting point moments before Guzmán López led him to the group of men who would assault him. "They killed him at the same time and in the same place where they kidnapped me," he writes. Zambada suggests Moya, a political rival of Cuen, was involved, though Moya denies that, stating he was in Los Angeles at the time.

Mexico's Attorney General's Office says it's seeking more information from Moya as part of a criminal investigation "for the possible crimes of illegal flight, illicit use of airports, immigration and customs violations, kidnapping, treason, and any other crimes that may apply." An article in Mexico's penal code defines treason in part as committed "by those who illegally abduct a person in Mexico in order to hand them over to authorities of another country." Such a crime is punishable by up to 40 years in prison. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is aligned with Moya, weighed in Monday, suggesting the arrests of Guzmán López and Zambada were part of a US plot to tie his Morena party to drug lords, per CBS. (More Sinaloa drug cartel stories.)