The arrest and subsequent release of Mónica del Rosario Zambada Niebla, daughter of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, during an operation carried out on the morning of Thursday, March 19, in the town of El Salado, has once again placed the drug trafficking family at the center of controversy.
The operation resulted in the deaths of 11 alleged members of the Los Mayos faction, as well as the arrest of one member identified as Oswaldo Torres “El Patas,” an operator for La Mayiza of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The release of Mónica Zambada, due to the lack of an arrest warrant against her, according to the Navy, contrasted sharply with the allegations made by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which since 2007 has linked her to a network of shell companies allegedly used to launder money for the criminal organization.
Among the companies identified by the U.S. government is Nueva Industria de Ganaderos de Culiacán S.A. de C.V., commercially known as Leche Santa Mónica.
