Mexican cartel leader with ties to Arizona appears in court on drug trafficking case

PHOENIX/NEW YORK (AZFamily/AP) — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel charged in a U.S. court with drug trafficking, appeared Friday for the first time before the judge presiding over his case.

The 76-year-old appeared at a status conference in Brooklyn federal court before District Judge Brian Cogan, who sentenced fellow cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to life behind bars after being convicted of drug trafficking in 2019.

Prosecutors allege that “El Mayo” and Guzmán built the Sinaloa Cartel into a massive manufacturer and smuggler of illegal narcotics, bringing vast quantities of drugs into the US. He has pleaded not guilty.

The son of “El Mayo,” Serafín Zambada Ortiz, was arrested at the Nogales border crossing in 2013 and released from prison in 2018 in his drug trafficking case.

Serafin agreed to a plea deal in which he admitted to purchasing more than 100 kilos of cocaine and 1,000 kilos of marijuana with plans to transport them for sale in California, local media in San Diego reported in 2014.

Serafin Zambada, also known as ‘Sera’, is not known for his involvement in drug trafficking in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, where he lives and where his family comes from, according to family and friends.

Since “El Mayo” and Guzmán López were arrested in the US, their rival factions of the cartel have clashed in the state of Sinaloa.

This week, a dozen gunshots were fired at a building housing a local newspaper in the capital Culiacan. According to the newspaper, no one was injured.

In addition, U.S. authorities recently announced charges against a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who they say runs a drug trafficking ring from Mexico and is protected by the Sinaloa Cartel.

During a status conference, prosecutors told the judge that some of the evidence in the case against “El Mayo” is classified and that his attorneys need clearance, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.

The judge scheduled the next performance of “El Mayo” for January 15.

Long wanted by U.S. law enforcement, “El Mayo” was taken into custody in July after arriving at a Texas airport on a private plane with Guzmán’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, according to federal authorities.

Guzmán López is charged with drug trafficking in Chicago and has also pleaded not guilty.

In the same courthouse earlier this week, Cogan sentenced Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former minister of public security, to more than 38 years in prison for taking millions of dollars in bribes to protect the Sinaloa cartel.

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