Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, confirmed on Friday the arrest of an alleged member of organized crime wanted by the U.S. during the operation in Sinaloa (northwest) that left 11 dead, and clarified that the daughter of drug lord El Mayo Zambada was not detained but was held in custody and later released, as she was not charged.
During the presidential press conference from Cancun, in southeastern Mexico, the official said that on Thursday several operations were carried out, one of them in the El Salado syndicate in Culiacan.
Daugther of El Mayo Zambada Did Not Have Arrest Warrant
🔴Security Secretary @OHarfuch informed that Monica Zambada Niebla, daughter of “El Mayo”, was not detained in Culiacan; she was located in a building with a minor, but did not have an arrest warrant in Mexico or in the US.pic.twitter.com/lgsjfesUMb
– Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) March 20, 2026
“A person by the name of Omar Osvaldo ‘N’ was arrested. This person has an arrest warrant in San Diego, California, in the United States. He is in custody,” he said.
García Harfuch explained that a woman identified as Mónica del Rosario ‘N’, daughter of Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and currently imprisoned in the U.S., and a minor were in one of the properties seized.
“In one of the properties was this person Mónica del Rosario ‘N’ with another minor.
“She was never detained, she was momentarily in custody first to protect the safety of all those who were there (…) and above all for one thing, to verify if she had a court order here in Mexico or in the United States,” he said.
The official emphasized that after the review it was confirmed that the woman had no arrest warrants.
“He has no injunction in Mexico or in the U.S. (…) However, it is an administrative procedure,” he said in reference to his inclusion in 2007 on a list of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
“For 20 years (…) she has had no arrest warrant in Mexico or the United States. Once this is corroborated, she is handed over to her relatives,” he added.
The operation, led by the Secretary of the Navy, was carried out in several municipalities of Sinaloa as part of the actions to contain the violence generated by the Sinaloa Cartel, in the midst of an internal struggle that has left hundreds of victims.
In that state and its capital, Culiacán, a violent internal struggle has been raging since late 2024 within the Sinaloa Cartel, which Washington declared last year as a terrorist group following the arrest in July of that year of Ismael El Mayo Zambada, co-founder of the organization, after Joaquín Guzmán López, one of El Chapo Guzmán ‘s sons and leader of the Los Chapitos group, handed him over to the United States.
According to figures from the NGO Consejo Estatal de Seguridad Pública (CESP), since September 9, 2024 the conflict between Los Chapitos and Los Mayos has caused more than 1,800 deaths in Sinaloa and more than 2,400 forced disappearances.
With information from EFE
