New York.- Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded not guilty this morning to the 17 charges accusing him of drug trafficking and murder in the Brooklyn Court.
Zambada, who participated through a Spanish interpreter, did not speak except to give brief answers to a judge’s standard questions about whether he understood various documents and procedures and how he felt.
“Fine, fine,” he said at the hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho in Brooklyn. His lawyers entered the not guilty plea on his behalf. Zambada, dressed in a prison jumpsuit and physically weakened, sat silently as he listened to the interpreter. As he left the courtroom, he appeared to accept some help getting up from a chair and then walked slowly but unassisted out of the courtroom.
Cho ordered Zambada, who is in his 70s, to be jailed pending trial.
“The defendant has dedicated his efforts over decades to growing, increasing and enhancing the power of the cartel, as well as his individual power and position in the cartel after his associate ‘El Chapo’ was captured,” the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn wrote in a court filing Thursday. His next court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 31 and he will await trial in prison.
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