Longtime leader of powerful Mexican cartel pleads not guilty to drug trafficking, murder in New York

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambadathe powerful leader of the Mexican drug cartel Sinaloa, pleaded not guilty Friday in New York on a 17-count indictment accusing him of drug trafficking and murder.

Zambada, speaking through a Spanish-language interpreter, did not speak except to give brief answers to standard questions from a judge about whether he understood various documents and procedures and how he was feeling — “fine, fine,” he said. His attorneys entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Zambada sat quietly as he listened to the interpreter. As he left the courthouse, he appeared to accept some help getting out of a chair and then walked out slowly but unaided.

Zambada has been a sought-after location for American law enforcement for more than two decades. in US custody since July 25, when he landed in a private jet at an airport outside El Paso, accompanied by another fugitive cartel leader, Joaquin Guzman Lopezaccording to federal authorities.

Zambada later wrote in a letter that he had been forcibly kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the United States by Guzmán López, the son of imprisoned Sinaloa co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn have asked a judge to permanently detain Zambada while he awaits trial. If convicted of all charges, Zambada, 76, faces a minimum sentence of life in prison and could be eligible for the death penalty.

In a letter to the judge, prosecutors called Zambada “one of the most notorious and dangerous drug traffickers in the world.”

“The defendant maintained an arsenal of military-grade weapons to protect his person, his drugs and his empire,” they wrote. “His heavily armed private security detail was used as his personal bodyguards and to protect drug shipments throughout Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and beyond. In addition, he maintained a stable of ‘sicarios,’ or hitmen, who carried out gruesome murders and kidnappings to maintain discipline within his organization, provide protection from challenges from rivals and silence those who sought to cooperate with law enforcement.”

That included ordering the murder of his own cousin several months ago, prosecutors said.

Zambada had previously pleaded guilty to the charges at an earlier court hearing in Texas.

His surprise arrest has led to fighting in Mexico between rival factions in the Sinaloa cartel. Gunfights have killed several people. Schools in businesses in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, have been closed because of the fighting. The fighting is believed to be between factions loyal to Zambada and led by other sons of “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was convicted in the U.S. in 2019 on drug and conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison.

It remains unclear why Guzmán López surrendered to U.S. authorities and took Zambada with him. Guzmán López is now awaiting trial on a separate drug trafficking charge in Chicago, where he has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in federal court.

Strange twist in the saga of the cartel leaders

In a unexpected turnLast month, Mexican prosecutors announced they would charge Guzmán with apparently kidnapping Zambada. The younger Guzmán apparently wanted to turn himself in to U.S. authorities, but may have taken Zambada as a prize to facilitate an eventual plea agreement.

Federal prosecutors said in a statement that “an arrest warrant has been prepared” for Guzmán on kidnapping charges.

But it also cited another charge under a section of Mexico’s penal code that defines what he did as treason. That section of the law says treason is committed “by those who illegally kidnap a person in Mexico to hand them over to the authorities of another country.”

This clause was apparently prompted by the kidnapping of a Mexican doctor wanted for alleged involvement in the torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Kiki Camarena in 1985.

Nowhere in the affidavit does it mention that the younger Guzmán was a member of the Chapitos — “little Chapos” — faction of the Sinaloa cartel, made up of Chapo’s sons, which smuggles millions of doses of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, causing about 70,000 overdose deaths each year. According to a 2023 U.S. Justice Department indictment, the Chapitos and their cartel partners used corkscrews, electrocution and hot peppers to smuggle torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers.”

El Chapo, the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado after he… convicted in 2019 for drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related crimes, among other things.

Last year, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message to the President of Mexico, claiming that he had been a victim of “psychological abuse” in prison.