Judge Kathleen Cardone approved this Thursday the extradition of the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, to New York to be tried in that city, where his partner, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was also sentenced to life imprisonment.
Zambada, 76, is currently detained in the border city of El Paso and has already had two initial court hearings, after nearly 50 years on the run in Mexico until his arrest on July 25 in Texas.
According to the official document of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Motion for initial appearance filed in Eastern District of New York and the suspension of the speedy trial provisions, to allow Zambada to face these new charges without violating his procedural rights.
The document states that, “The government requests that a hearing be held promptly under Rule 5 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure in order to provide the Defendant with an initial appearance and legal notices regarding his pending charges in the Eastern District of New York, so that he may be advised of those charges, of his rights in connection therewith, and so that an identity hearing may be scheduled to allow the Defendant to be ordered transferred to the Eastern District of New York.”
It is worth mentioning that “El Mayo” faces an extensive case consisting of 13 federal crime charges. Most of them are for drug trafficking, conspiring to commit the murder of rivals of the criminal organization, use of firearms and money laundering.
In addition, the indictment in New York was updated in February of this year and is the only one that mentions trafficking in fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that has generated a serious crisis of overdose deaths in the United States and has become the center of the country’s anti-drug policy.
However, according to the Department of Justice, this fifth superseding indictment extends the end dates for the continuing criminal activity and various criminal associations from May 2014 to January 2024.
In this case, the record reported that “when the defendant has been charged in a district other than where the offense was allegedly committed, in this case the Eastern District of New York, Rule 5(c)(3) provides that if the initial appearance takes place in a district other than where the offense was allegedly committed, the following procedures shall apply:
(A) the trial judge must inform the accused of the provisions of Rule 20;
(B) If the defendant was arrested without a warrant, the district court where the crime was allegedly committed must first issue a warrant before the trial judge will transfer the defendant to that district.;
(C) the trial judge must hold a preliminary hearing if required by Rule 5.1;
(D) the trial judge must transfer the defendant to the district where the offense was allegedly committed if: (I) the government produces the warrant, a certified copy of the warrant, or a reliable electronic form of either; and (II) the judge determines that the defendant is the same person named in the indictment, information, or warrant; and (E) when a defendant is transferred and released, the clerk must promptly transmit the papers and any bail to the clerk of the district where the offense was allegedly committed.”
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