The transfer of Ismael Zambada García to New York seems imminent. The United States authorities presented a new motion on Thursday for El Mayo to continue his judicial process in the Brooklyn court, the same one where Joaquín García was tried. El Chapo Guzmán and Genaro García Luna, the anti-drug czar of Felipe Calderón’s government. The request came just a day after Kathleen Cardone, the judge in charge of the case in Texas, rejected a first request to take the 76-year-old defendant. The difference between the two requests is that, according to Washington, Zambada’s lawyers no longer oppose their client being taken to the Eastern District Court of New York, where he faces charges of fentanyl trafficking, organized crime and other crimes. In any case, the court has given El Mayo until next Friday to confirm that he is not against being taken and prosecuted in another state.
Cardone argued Wednesday that prosecutors had failed to prove why El Mayo should continue his trial in the Eastern District Court of New York and ordered him to remain detained in the border city of El Paso, a few miles from where he was captured on July 25. The ruling was surprising because the judge had initially been open to granting the transfer, which had been requested since August 15. That changed when Zambada’s defense, led by attorney Frank Pérez, opposed his client being taken to Brooklyn. Prosecutors, in turn, argued that the fact that the drug lord remained so close to the Mexican border posed a security risk.
El Mayo is charged with federal crimes in five different states in the United States, with open cases in Texas, New York, Illinois, California and the District of Columbia. The interest of the US authorities in having Zambada face justice in New York is that it is the most extensive accusation against him. The New York case dates back to 2009, but was updated only in February of this year with charges for fentanyl trafficking and covers a period that goes from the end of the eighties until this year. Formulated in 2012, the Texas case, on the other hand, focuses on crimes committed more than a decade ago, when El Mayo and El Chapo, as leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, embarked on a war against the Juarez Cartel to fight for the drug trafficking route between Chihuahua and Texas, one of the most important and lucrative.
If the new request is approved, a trial in New York would paint a broader and more up-to-date picture of the Sinaloa Cartel’s activities, as well as its alliances with other criminal organizations and even politicians. In the opinion of the prosecutors, the indictment in Brooklyn allows Zambada to “face justice and be held accountable for his crimes.” all the crimes” he is charged with. In Texas, El Mayo faces seven crimes: three for being part of a continuing criminal enterprise, one for possession of weapons, another for money laundering and one more for cocaine trafficking. In New York, on the other hand, he must answer for 21 charges: 18 for drug trafficking (including, in addition to cocaine, heroin, marijuana and fentanyl trafficking), one for being part of a continuing criminal enterprise (organized crime), another for possession of firearms and one more for money laundering.
In his ruling this week, Cardone did not completely close the door to the judicial process continuing in New York and put several options on the table for both parties: either for the Prosecutor’s Office to seek transfer through another legal procedure or for the accused to express his intention to stay in Texas. One of those options is for the prosecutors to file a written statement habeas corpuswhich would require Zambada’s presence in the New York court with the mutual agreement of the parties involved. This is the route that the authorities are currently seeking to undertake the transfer.
Now, it is El Mayo’s defense’s turn to confirm that they have no objection to their client being transferred and tried before Judge Brian Cogan, who sentenced El Chapo in 2019 and García Luna in 2023. The sentencing of the former Mexican Secretary of Security is scheduled for October 9. El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 30 years by Cogan. The deadline for Zambada to make his final decision expires on September 6 at noon (local and Mexico time).
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