EL PASO, Texas – A federal judge on Friday said that a powerful Mexican drug cartel leader who was arrested over the summer in the U.S. can be transferred from Texas to New York to face charges there.
The order from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso came after the attorneys for Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, said a day earlier that they no longer opposed the transfer that had been being requested by federal prosecutors.
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Zambada, 76, was arrested in July along with Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán,” after they landed in a private plane at an airport near El Paso. They are charged in the U.S. with various drug crimes and remain jailed.
Zambada, who faces charges in multiple locales, has appeared in U.S. federal court in El Paso, where he pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking charges.
Cardone said in her order that he would complete the proceedings in New York before any further proceedings were held in Texas.
The elder Guzmán was convicted in 2019 of drug and conspiracy charges in New York and sentenced to life in prison.
In New York, Zambada is charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder conspiracy, drug offenses and other crimes.
Zambada has said he ended up in the U.S. after he was kidnapped in his home country en route to what he thought was a meeting with a Mexican official.
Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug kingpin “El Chapo,” pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges Tuesday, days after an astonishing capture in the U.S.
Guzmán López has appeared in federal court in Chicago, where he has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.