One of Mexico’s most powerful drug kingpins was arrested in Texas after allegedly being kidnapped by a fellow cartel leader. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada led the Sinaloa cartel after Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was captured, but his life in the cartel extends back decades.

Zambada’s lawyer sent a statement on Zambada’s behalf to the LA Times this weekend, in which El Mayo details his alleged kidnapping by El Chapo’s son, and claims that a Sinaloan politician was killed in the process.

LA Times criminal justice editor Keegan Hamilton wrote about the rise and fall of El Mayo and joined us on "LA Times Today."

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Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.