Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS))is preparing to make his first appearance in Brooklyn court, where his friend and partner, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and the former Secretary of Public Security, Gerardo García Luna, were tried.
According to official information, the drug lord will appear in person in a New York court on Friday to hear the charges against him, a spokesman for the New York Attorney General’s Office confirmed.
Once moved from El Paso to New York, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada will now appear for the first time in Brooklyn, where the Prosecutor’s Office requested that he remain under arrest due to his high level of dangerousness.
According to a letter sent by the State Department, for more than three decades, “El Mayo” Zambada has been one of the most prolific and powerful drug traffickers in the world. Along with his co-defendant, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, “El Chapo” co-founded the brutally violent Sinaloa Cartel in the late 1980s, and has reigned ever since, until just a few weeks ago, as one of its top leaders.
In view of this, requests that he be kept in custody to ensure the safety of the public or the appearance of the accused at trial, Therefore, “the Court should issue a permanent detention order pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code,” the statement said.
Zambada, 76, has already appeared in federal court in El Paso, where he pleaded not guilty to the drug trafficking charges against him.In New York, Zambada will face charges of running a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking and other serious crimes.
According to the US government, “El Mayo” is one of the most notorious and dangerous drug traffickers in the world. His rise to power began with the creation of the Cartel and ended with his arrest in July 2024.
In the same vein, he notes that CDS is an organization that since approximately the late 1980s has imported lethal quantities of narcotics, including but not limited to cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and most recently fentanyl, into the United States and has laundered billions of dollars in drug profits back to Mexico.
For this first hearing, although Judge James Cho was appointed as the investigating judge, it is expected that it will be presided over by Judge Brian Cogan, who was the one who tried “El Chapo.”
In addition, Cogan was the judge who tried Genaro García Luna, the former Mexican Interior Secretary, in 2023, also in New York and found guilty of several drug trafficking charges, although he is still awaiting a final sentence.
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– “El Mayo” Zambada had a mobile operating room where “El Chapo” was on the verge of dying.
– Following the capture of “El Mayo” and son of El Chapo, the DEA updated its list of the 10 most wanted drug traffickers.