SAN DIEGO – Federal indictments unsealed in San Diego charge top leaders of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel with smuggling huge amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs to the United States.
The indictments unsealed Friday charge 64-year-old Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and two of his sons. Another son has pleaded guilty in the same investigation, which began in 2011 by targeting a small drug-dealing ring in San Diego's suburbs and reached the cartel's top leaders through the use of more than 200 wiretaps.
So far, 117 people have been charged in the investigation, including 60 in 14 indictments that were unsealed Friday.
The elder Zambada is at-large. He is also charged with federal crimes in Chicago and Brooklyn, New York.
Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was arrested last year in Mexico.
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