World
Powerful cartel leader 'El Mayo’ Zambada was lured onto airplane before arrest in US, AP source says
WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful Mexican drug cartel leader who eluded authorities for decades was duped into flying into the U.S., where he was arrested alongside a son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, according to a U.S. law enforcement official familiar with the matter.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada got on an airplane to the U.S. believing he was going somewhere else, said the official, who spoke on the condition on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. The official did not provide additional details, including who persuaded Zambada to get on the plane or where exactly he thought he was going.
Upon arriving in the El Paso area, Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug kingpin “El Chapo,” who was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison in 2019, were immediately taken into custody by U.S. authorities, officials said.
Zambada, one of the most powerful drug lords in the world, has been a key target for the U.S. government for years in its bid to take down leaders of the Sinaloa cartel that’s responsible for trafficking huge sums of drugs across the border. U.S. authorities had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his capture.
Zambada’s arrest “strikes at the heart of the cartel that is responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing Americans from coast to coast,” said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Thursday evening.
A lawyer listed for Zambada did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that Mexico was still awaiting details about the arrest of the men and was not involved in the operation. He hailed the arrests, though he suggested others could step in to fill the vacuum. That’s why his administration has focused on addressing the root causes of drug use and the associated violence, he said.
Mexican Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said the plane took off with only the pilot from the airport in Hermosillo, Mexico. The flight tracking service Flight Aware showed the plane stopped transmitting its altitude and speed for about 30 minutes while it was over the mountains of northern Mexico before resuming its course to the U.S. border.
“It is a fact that one person went out from here, three people arrived there”, she said.
Zambada is facing charges in a number of U.S. cases, including in New York and California. Prosecutors brought a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as the “principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing enormous quantities of narcotics into the United States.”
Zambada, one of the longest-surviving capos in Mexico, was considered the cartel’s strategist, more involved in day-to-day operations than his flashier and better-known boss, “El Chapo.”
Zambada is an old-fashioned capo in an era of younger kingpins known for their flamboyant lifestyles of club-hopping and brutal tactics of beheading, dismembering and even skinning their rivals. While Zambada has fought those who challenged him, he is known for concentrating on the business side of trafficking and avoiding gruesome cartel violence that would draw attention.
In an April 2010 interview with the Mexican magazine Proceso, he acknowledged that he lived in fear of going to prison and would contemplate suicide rather than be captured.
“I’m terrified of being incarcerated,” Zambada said. “I’d like to think that, yes, I would kill myself.”
The interview was surprising for a kingpin known for keeping his head down, but he gave strict instructions on where and when the encounter would take place, and the article gave no hint of his whereabouts.
Zambada reputedly won the loyalty of locals in his home state of Sinaloa and neighboring Durango through his largess, sponsoring local farmers and distributing money and beer in his birthplace of El Alamo.
Although little is known about Zambada’s early life, he is believed to have gotten his start as an enforcer in the 1970s.
By the early 1990s, he was a major player in the Juarez cartel, transporting tons of cocaine and marijuana.
Zambada started gaining the trust of Colombian traffickers, allegiances that helped him come out on top in the cartel world of ever-shifting alliances. Eventually he became so powerful that he broke off from the Juarez cartel, but still managed to keep strong ties with the gang and avoided a turf war. He also developed a partnership with “El Chapo” Guzman that would take him to the top of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Zambada’s detention follows some important arrests of other Sinaloa cartel figures, including one of his sons and another son of “El Chapo” Guzmán, Ovidio Guzmán López.
Ovidio Guzmán López was arrested and extradited to the U.S. last year. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago in September. The Bureau of Prisons inmate locator showed that Ovidio Guzmán López was released Tuesday, but Rodríguez said U.S. authorities informed them he was not freed but just had his custody changed.
In 2021, Zambada’s son pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego to being a leader in the Sinaloa cartel.
In recent years, Guzman’s sons have led a faction of the cartel known as the little Chapos, or “Chapitos,” that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. market. Their security chief was arrested by Mexican authorities in November.
____
Verza and Sherman reported from Mexico City.

World
New video purportedly shows Louvre thieves in action during brazen daytime heist

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A new video has emerged showing what could be the Louvre thieves in action as they carried out Sunday’s daylight robbery at Paris’s world-famous museum.
The footage, obtained by French broadcaster BFMTV, purportedly shows what has been called one of the most brazen art thefts in recent memory.
The short clip appears to show someone inside the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery, which was home to some of the museum’s most priceless treasures.
Footage taken by an anonymous bystander shows a person in a bright yellow jacket standing beside a glass display case.
BRAZEN LOUVRE ROBBERY CREW MAY HAVE BEEN HIRED BY COLLECTOR, PROSECUTOR SAYS
New footage purportedly shows a person in a yellow jacket beside a display case amid the Louvre heist in Paris. (BFMTV)
The amateur footage was replayed for BFMTV, who filmed that phone’s screen and verified it Sunday. The Associated Press has not been able to independently confirm its authenticity.
According to French authorities, the thieves executed a highly coordinated operation that unfolded just after the museum opened to the public in the morning.
At around 9:30 a.m., thieves used a basket lift to reach the Louvre’s facade, forcing open a window to gain entry to the Apollo Gallery, which contains displays of the royal jewels.
LOUVRE MUSEUM CLOSED AFTER ROBBERY, FRENCH OFFICIAL SAYS

Thieves executed a daytime heist at the Louvre Museum, stealing French crown jewels. (Thibault Camus : AP)
According to reports, the group made off with jewels once belonging to Napoleon III’s court, including pieces from Empress Eugénie’s personal collection.
“They breached through a window and made this really brazen. These guys are fast and moving quickly with a purpose, and they breach, and they get in there really quickly,” former FBI Art Crime expert Tim Carpenter told Fox News Digital.
After the heist, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez spoke to radio station France Inter and said the thieves “entered from the outside using a basket lift” and “a disc cutter” to slice through glass panes containing precious jewels.
TOURISM SAFETY FEARS RISE AFTER MUSEUM THIEF STEALS PHARAOH’S PRICELESS BRACELET: 4 THINGS TO KNOW

A crown worn by French Empress Eugenie, which was targeted by thieves during a heist at Paris’ Louvre Museum on Oct. 19, 2025 but was dropped during their escape, on display in this undated still frame from a video. (Louvre Museum/Handout via Reuters)
“The investigation has begun, and a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled,” the ministry also said in a statement. “Beyond their market value, these items have inestimable heritage and historical value.”
The Louvre remained closed on Monday as investigators combed through the scene and reviewed surveillance footage.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Louvre Museum and the Ministry of Culture for comment.
World
Israel continues deadly Gaza truce breaches as US seeks to strengthen deal

Israel has continued its air strikes and shootings in Gaza, raising fears over the future of its fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas, as United States envoys ramp up diplomacy to get the deal back on track.
The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said that four people were killed in two separate attacks, both times “by Israeli gunfire as they were returning to check on their homes” in the al-Shaaf area, east of Tuffah neighbourhood, in eastern Gaza City.
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Israel’s military claimed it had fired at militants who crossed the so-called yellow line of demarcation and had approached troops in the Shujayea neighbourhood, which is adjacent to Tuffah, and “posed a threat” to Israeli soldiers.
The yellow line, set out in a map shared by US President Donald Trump on October 4, is the boundary behind which Israeli troops pulled back and remain stationed under the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Gaza City residents reported confusion over the line’s location because of a lack of a visible boundary. “The whole area is in ruins. We saw the maps but we can’t tell where those lines are,” said Samir, 50, who lives in Tuffah in the city’s east.
Several outbreaks of violence have taken place since a fragile US-brokered ceasefire began on October 10, with at least 97 Palestinians killed in total, according to Gaza officials.
‘Blatant breaches’
Amid the rising death toll, Israel and Hamas have pointed the finger at one another for breaking the terms of the ceasefire, which took effect on October 10.
Israeli air attacks on Sunday killed 42 people, including children, according to local health officials. Israel said the strikes were in retaliation for a truce violation by Hamas fighters, who it claimed shot and killed two Israeli soldiers in Rafah.
Hamas denied involvement in the event, saying it has no contact with any of its remaining units in Israeli-controlled parts of Rafah and “is not responsible for any incidents” there. One official accused Israel of fabricating “pretexts” to resume the war.
The group, which has released 20 living Israeli captives, said it was working to complete the handover of the remaining bodies of captives in Gaza, citing “major challenges because of the extensive destruction” of the enclave.
The Red Cross received the body of a 13th deceased captive from Hamas on Monday and transferred it to the Israeli military, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Sunday, Israel threatened to halt shipments of humanitarian aid into Gaza, though it later said it had resumed enforcing the ceasefire.
United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the delivery of aid into the territory had resumed, though he did not say how much.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said on Monday that Israel was still blocking the entry of aid into Gaza. “Several military checkpoints are blocking their entry, and these trucks are packed with various humanitarian supplies,” he said.
Abu Azzoum said the Israeli army had struck the eastern parts of Khan Younis on Monday, triggering fears among Palestinians that the ceasefire would not hold.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said, “The fragile ceasefire in #Gaza must be upheld”, in a statement on X, and called for investigations into the “blatant breaches” of international humanitarian law.
The fragile ceasefire in #Gaza must be upheld.
Yesterday, four people were killed following shelling by Israeli forces of an UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat refugee camp. More are reported injured.
UNRWA buildings across the Gaza Strip were transformed into shelters…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) October 20, 2025
Salvage efforts
Amid the continued violence, two of Trump’s envoys travelled to Israel on Monday to shore up the ceasefire deal.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Netanyahu, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.
US Vice President JD Vance and the second lady, Usha Vance, are scheduled to visit Israel on Tuesday and meet with Netanyahu.
The ceasefire’s next stage is expected to focus on disarming Hamas, Israeli withdrawal from additional areas it controls in Gaza, and the future governance of the devastated territory under an internationally backed “board of peace”.
Egypt hosted talks in Cairo on Monday with senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya over ways to follow up on implementing the ceasefire, Hamas said in a statement.
Hamas and other allied factions reject any foreign administration of Gaza, as envisaged in the Trump plan, and have so far resisted calls to lay down arms, which may complicate the implementation of the deal.
Asked about maintaining the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Trump appeared to blame Hamas for the ceasefire breaches, saying that it was facing “some rebellion” in its ranks, which the leaders needed to straighten out.
“They have to be good, and if they’re not good, they’ll be eradicated,” he said. But he insisted that such actions would not involve US troops on the ground.
Since the ceasefire started, Hamas security forces have returned to the streets in Gaza, clashing with other armed groups and killing alleged gangsters.
Trump had last week said that Hamas had taken out “a couple of gangs that were very bad; very, very bad gangs”.
“And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s OK,” he said.
World
Video: How Jared Kushner Re-emerged at the Center of the Israel-Hamas Peace Deal

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