Prosecutors request moving ‘El Mayo’ Mexican drug lord to New York City jurisdiction

A prominent Mexican drug lord nicknamed “El Mayo,” who was arrested in the United States, could be headed to New York City after prosecutors filed a request Thursday to move him from Texas.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is known as a top leader and co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and faces charges in multiple U.S. locales. Zambada and one of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons were arrested last month after being flown into New Mexico. Zambada said he was kidnapped in his home country en route to what he thought was a meeting with a Mexican official.

Now, prosecutors in Texas are trying to move Zambada to the New York jurisdiction that includes Brooklyn, where the elder Guzmán was convicted in 2019 of drug and conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison.

If the prosecutors’ request is approved, the case against Zambada in Texas will proceed after the one in New York. He faces racketeering conspiracy, drug conspiracy, and other charges in his Texas case, while in Brooklyn, he is charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder conspiracy, drug offenses, and other crimes.

Zambada ran the Sinaloa cartel, one of the largest criminal organizations in Mexico, with Guzman as it manufactured illegal drugs and smuggled them into the U.S., authorities said. Zambada is considered the syndicate’s strategist and deal-maker, thought to be more involved in its day-to-day doings than the more flamboyant Guzmán.

Until last month, he had never been behind bars. He also reportedly feuded with Guzman’s sons, who are called the Chapitos, or Little Chapos. Zambada’s arrest caused the Mexican government to dispatch 200 soldiers to the state of Sinaloa in fear that a power struggle would ensue.