Experts believe no drug traffickers cut loose as part of cross-border Sinaloa cartel arrests

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mexican officials have suggested it was essentially a prisoner exchange for two other cartel operatives who had been imprisoned in Chicago.

Top Mexican security officials say the U.S. made a two-for-one trade that resulted in the arrest of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the current leader of the Sinaloa cartel that supplies most of Chicago illicit drugs.

But others with knowledge of how these arrests work say there was no prisoner exchange and that the Mexican government is trying to save face after being left out of the operation.

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When a plane from Mexico landed in Texas last month, FBI agents were there to arrest cartel drug lord El Mayo, a U.S. fugitive for years, who had a $15-million bounty on his 76-year old head. El Mayo was with one of El Chapo's sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez.

On Tuesday, Mexico's Secretary of Security announced that Guzman Lopez and his brother Ovidio, who is awaiting trial in Chicago for drug trafficking, had cut a deal with American prosecutors. Essentially, trading themselves for the kingpin El Mayo, who is their father's most trusted ally.

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"Well, I can be pretty obvious in my understanding of the way the Mexicans work, and if that's coming out of their mouth...I don't think that's what happened. I think they got caught with their pants down. They're trying to recover some sense of dignity," former DEA official, Jack Riley, told the I-Team.

Riley is the fabled former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago who literally wrote the book on EL Chapo. Riley said he doesn't believe stories suggesting El Chapo's sons have freedom-deals and are being released in exchange for El Mayo.

"No...I certainly hope not. Because it goes back to cutting deals with security threats to the United States," said Riley. "These are mass murders by grand proportions. And I just don't think our government, even if it was politically motivated, you know, pending the upcoming election. There's just no way in my mind."

"If you have a choice between a deal that simply frees dangerous international drug traffickers to roam the streets of the United States, or get out of them really valuable testimony in cooperation that can topple the leadership of a cartel, you'd rather take the second," said ABC 7 chief legal analyst Gil Soffer. He says it's not surprising El Mayo will likely be prosecuted in New York and not Chicago, based on strength of evidence. Ex-DEA boss Jack Riley agrees.

The attorney for El Chapo's sons, Jeffrey Lichtman, also continues to discredit Mexican assertions that there is some kind of deal with the U.S. government. Lichtman is adamant that there isn't.