“Mayo” Zambada was transported to the United States by Joaquín Guzmán López, “El Güero,” aboard an aircraft modified to evade tracking, in an operation that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described as “heroic and unprecedented,” thus confirming its participation in the operation that resulted in the capture of both men, according to information obtained by Pie de Nota.
The landing took place at the Santa Teresa airport in New Mexico, a few kilometers from El Paso, Texas, where FBI agents and other US federal agencies were already waiting for Zambada and Guzmán López. They also confirmed that neither was handcuffed and that they were arrested upon exiting the aircraft.
The aircraft is a 1976 Beechcraft King Air that was modified with paint to appear as a more recent model. It landed with the registration N287KA, which is a clone of an existing aircraft, and inside it carried the serial number BB-1137, corresponding to the aircraft it impersonated.
The document obtained by Pie de Nota revealed that the actual serial number is BB-191, belonging to an aircraft from the 1970s initially operated in Colombia. This same number was removed from the engines and several interior panels to prevent its identification.
The location transmission system was removed from the tail to prevent the aircraft from being tracked, and the records of previous flights were also completely erased.
