MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s attorney general’s office said on Thursday that 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 alongside one of the sons of his incarcerated Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Zambada, through his lawyer, has said he was taken against his will and Mexico is investigating the events surrounding the arrests to determine whether treason was committed via the forcible abduction of a Mexican citizen and their delivery to U.S. authorities.
The statement 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.
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.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, writing by Brendan O’Boyle, editing by Stephen Eisenhammer)
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