Mexican drug cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ Zambada appears in court in Texas

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A powerful Mexican drug cartel leader made his second appearance in federal court in Texas on Thursday after being taken into U.S. custody last week.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 76, used a wheelchair for the hearing before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso. Zambada, the leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel for decades, eluded authorities for decades until a plane carrying him and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, landed at an airport near El Paso on July 25. Both men were arrested and remain in prison. They are charged in the United States with various drug-related offenses.

During Thursday’s brief hearing, there was discussion about whether Zambada would be tried alongside other defendants or separately. He is being held without bail and pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing last week, during which he also used a wheelchair.

His next hearing is set for Sept. 9. His attorneys declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing.

One of his lawyers, Frank Perez, had already alleged that his client was kidnapped by Guzman Lopez and taken to the United States aboard a private plane. Guzman Lopez, 38, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to drug trafficking and other charges in federal court in Chicago.

Zambada was thought to be more involved in the cartel’s day-to-day operations than its better-known and more flashy boss, “El Chapo,” who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019.

Zambada is charged in several cases in the United States, including in New York and California. Prosecutors filed a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as the “principal leader of the criminal organization responsible for importing massive quantities of narcotics into the United States.”

The capture of Zambada and Guzmán López has fueled theories about how federal authorities pulled it off and prompted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to take the unusual step of issuing a public call to drug cartels not to fight each other.

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