Editor's note: This story has been updated with statements from U.S. Department of Justice officials on the alleged scope of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada's criminal activity and its impact on the United States.
Reputed Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada made his first court appearance in New York federal court after an El Paso judge approved a motion to have him tried there before El Paso, federal court records show.
Zambada, 76, pleaded not guilty to 17 felony counts, which also include drug trafficking, firearms offenses and money laundering, at an arraignment hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho in Brooklyn in the Eastern District of New York, Reuters reported.
“El Mayo, the co-founder and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, has been charged with overseeing a multi-billion-dollar conspiracy to flood American communities with narcotics, including deadly fentanyl,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “We allege that El Mayo built, and for decades led, the Sinaloa Cartel’s network of manufacturers, assassins, traffickers, and money launderers responsible for kidnapping and murdering people in both the United States and Mexico, and importing lethal quantities of fentanyl, heroin, meth, and cocaine into the United States.
"Now, El Mayo joins the many other Sinaloa Cartel leaders who have faced charges in an American courtroom for the immeasurable harm they have inflicted on families and communities across our country.”
Zambada next court hearing in New York is not listed in federal court records . Zamabada entered his not guilty plea in the same New York courthouse where fellow Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was convicted five years earlier. Guzman was sentenced to life in prison on murder, drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
Cho ordered Zambada be jailed pending trial.
"The defendant has devoted his efforts over decades to growing, increasing, and enhancing the power of the Cartel — and his individual power and position in the Cartel after his partner El Chapo was captured," the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn wrote in a Thursday court filing. The filing was address to U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan of the Eastern District of New York. Cogan will preside over future court hearing for Zambada.
Zambada was flown Thursday, Sept. 12, out of El Paso to make his court appearance in New York, U.S. Department of Justice officials said.
“Zambada Garcia’s day of reckoning in a U.S. courtroom has arrived and justice will follow,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement. “If convicted, never again will he deliver fentanyl, cocaine, and other deadly drugs and associated violence into our country or make millions as hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are lost.
"It is my hope that the countless family members and friends of victims who succumbed to his cartel’s poisons, and the countless members of law enforcement who fearlessly risked their lives fighting this scourge, should take comfort in knowing that Zambada Garcia will be held accountable for his multitude of crimes.”
Zambada is accused of leading the Sinaloa drug cartel from 1989 to 2024 during which the drug organization imported and distributed massive quantities of narcotics and which generated billions of dollars in profits, U.S. Department of Justice officials said.
He ensured the success of the Sinaloa Cartel by employing thousands of people in South and Central America, throughout Mexico and in the U.S., officials said.
“Through a complex, layered structure, El Mayo was able to assure transportation routes for the narcotics he sold from source of supply to distribution on the streets of the United States,” officials said. “El Mayo also employed groups of ‘sicarios’ or hit-men, who at his orders carried out kidnappings and murders in Mexico and elsewhere — including murders in the United States — to eliminate anyone who threatened this valuable narcotics pipeline and to retaliate against rivals and those suspected of cooperating with the U.S. government.”
The case being tried in New York before the Western District of Texas in El Paso came after Zambada's attorney, Frank A. Perez, and U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas fought over where Zambada should go to trial first. The two sides eventually reached an agreement Sept. 6.
Zambada had made two federal court appearances in El Paso after he was arrested July 25 by U.S. Marshals at a Doña Ana County private airport in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, a small town bordering El Paso. Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of "El Chapo" Guzman, also was arrested.
He pleaded not guilty July 26 to seven drug and money laundering charges at the Albert Armendariz Sr. U.S. Courthouse in Downtown El Paso. His second court appearance was an Aug. 1, status conference to handle any pretrial issues.
The issues included concerns of conflict of interest since Zambada's attorneys had represented other known drug cartel members and if Zambada would be tried separately or with other codefendants.
Zambada waived any concerns involving his attorney and elected to keep them. The U.S. Attorney's Office told U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso they had not yet made a decision on with who, if anyone, Zambada would go to trial with in El Paso.
Zambada's attorneys and the U.S. Attorney's Office then fought over moving him to New York. Perez argued Zambada was arrested on a warrant from the Western District of Texas and had already appeared before an El Paso federal judge twice, so the case should be handled first in El Paso.
U.S. Attorney's Office countered in motions that constitutional law allowed them to move Zambada to New York for trial there before continuing in El Paso. Cardone ruled against the U.S. Attorney's Office but was later informed Zambada and Perez changed their minds and agreed to move the case to New York.
Cardone approved the motion to have Zambada moved to New York.
The Brooklyn case began in 2009 and includes allegations related to the trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid fueling an epidemic in the United States.
"El Chapo" Guzman is serving a life sentence at a ADX Florence supermax federal prison near Florence, Colorado. His son has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago.
Shootouts this week in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa kindled fears that an intra-cartel war is about to break out in the wake of Zambada's arrest, Reuters reported.
Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
Reuters reporters Jack Queen and Luc Cohen contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: DOJ: 'El Mayo' Zambada 'flooded American communities with narcotics, deadly fentanyl'
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