NEW YORK — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a prominent figure in Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, made his first appearance in a U.S. court on Friday, facing drug trafficking allegations. The status conference was held in Brooklyn federal court before District Court Judge Brian Cogan, who previously sentenced another cartel leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to life imprisonment after his conviction in 2019 for similar charges.
Zambada, now 76 years old, is accused of playing a crucial role in the expansion and operations of the Sinaloa cartel alongside Guzmán, orchestrating the production and distribution of vast amounts of illegal drugs entering the United States. He has maintained his not guilty plea throughout the proceedings.
The drug lord’s long evasion of U.S. law enforcement came to an end in July when he was arrested after arriving in a Texas airport on a private jet with Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of Guzmán, who also faces drug trafficking charges in Chicago and has pleaded not guilty.
Following the arrests of Zambada and Guzmán López, intense rivalry has erupted within cartel factions in the state of Sinaloa. Recently, a local newspaper in Culiacan reported that approximately a dozen shots were fired at its offices, although no injuries were reported.
In an unrelated development, U.S. authorities recently announced charges against a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder, alleging he leads a drug trafficking organization based in Mexico and operates under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel.
During the status conference, prosecutors informed the judge that certain pieces of evidence against Zambada are classified, requiring his defense team to receive appropriate clearance to review them, as noted by representatives from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.
The court has scheduled Zambada’s next hearing for January 15. Earlier in the week, Judge Cogan sentenced Genaro García Luna, the former Mexican secretary of public security, to over 38 years in prison for accepting bribes to ensure protection for the Sinaloa cartel’s operations.