Top Mexican cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ to stand trial in New York

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, the Mexican drug lord who was taken into custody by federal agents last month, will stand trial in Brooklyn, New York, according to CNN.

Zambada’s transfer to Brooklyn from El Paso, Texas, means the alleged top Sinaloa Cartel leader will likely be tried in the same federal courthouse as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, the cartel’s other co-founder, who is serving a life sentence in prison after being convicted in 2019 on drug conspiracy charges.

Federal prosecutors in Texas pushed for Zambada to stand trial in the Lone Star state, but the Justice Department worried about the security issues involved with holding the trial so close to the Mexican border, the New York Times reported.

The drug lord was arrested in Texas last month after reportedly being tricked onto a plane by El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzman Lopez, a high-ranking member of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, and flown across the border into the United States, where federal agents were waiting.

He has been charged in a series of indictments over the years in California, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington, D.C., all of which deal with a major violation of U.S. narcotics laws.

Zambada pleaded not guilty to seven federal charges in Texas last month, including continuing criminal enterprise, money laundering, and narcotics importation conspiracy.

For decades, the drug lord has “overseen the trafficking of tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl into the United States, along with scores of related violence,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge David Sundberg said in February, when the drug lord was charged with conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl.

Before his arrest, the U.S. government was offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

Guzman Lopez pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in Chicago last month.