New York, United States.- A Texas judge has given the green light to transfer Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to New York to face trial in the same Brooklyn court where his co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was convicted in 2019.
In a court filing Thursday, federal prosecutors in El Paso, Texas, said Zambada would be prosecuted on the charges he faces in the Eastern District of New York before returning to face separate charges in Texas.
Texas federal judge Kathleen Cardone authorized the transfer of the drug lord to Judge Brian Cogan’s court.
Zambada has pleaded not guilty to the Texas charges. His attorney, Frank Perez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors said in their filing that they had not yet received a response from “El Mayo’s” defense attorney about his position regarding his transfer.
The septuagenarian Zambada was arrested on July 25 at an airfield in New Mexico along with one of Guzmán’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López. The dramatic operation was a major blow to US security forces.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said Guzman Lopez turned himself in voluntarily, but Zambada appeared to have been taken north of the border against his will.
Guzmán López has pleaded not guilty to the drug trafficking charges he faces in Chicago.
The charges Zambada faces in Brooklyn, filed in February, include conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, a synthetic opioid fueling an epidemic across the United States.
In Texas, Zambada faces drug trafficking and racketeering charges filed in 2012 stemming from alleged conspiracies to ship cocaine and marijuana into the United States.
Thursday’s filing did not say when Zambada might be transferred to New York. “El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.
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