Mexican cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ Zambada appears in court in his US drug trafficking case

NEW YORK– Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel charged in a U.S. court with drug trafficking, made his first appearance Friday before the judge presiding over his case.

Zambada, 76, appeared at a status conference in Brooklyn federal court before District Court 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 Zambada and Guzmán built the Sinaloa Cartel into a massive manufacturer and smuggler of illegal narcotics, bringing vast quantities of drugs into the US. Zambada has pleaded not guilty.

Long wanted by U.S. law enforcement, he 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.

Since Zambada and Guzmán López were arrested in the US, their rival factions of the cartel have clashed in Sinaloa state. 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 announced charges Thursday against a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who they say runs a drug trafficking ring from Mexico and is protected by the Sinaloa cartel.

During Friday’s status conference, prosecutors told the judge that some of the evidence in the case against Zambada 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 Zambada’s next appearance for January 15.

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.