Mexican cartel boss ‘El Mayo’ pleads not guilty to murder, drug conspiracy charges

Zambada, co-founder and leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, will remain in jail until his trial after his arrest in New Mexico in July, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York said.

Prosecutors wrote in a letter to a judge requesting Zambada’s continued detention that he was “one of the most notorious and dangerous drug traffickers in the world,” noting that the 76-year-old drug lord had been indicted more than a dozen times in the U.S. over the past two decades.

In the most recent case, Zambada was indicted in New York in February on 17 charges, including conspiracy to commit murder, operating a criminal enterprise and various charges related to the distribution and manufacturing of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.

Under Zambada’s leadership, the Sinaloa cartel has grown into a multibillion-dollar drug trafficking organization that transports the “vast majority” of its illegal drugs to the U.S., prosecutors said in the indictment.

As the country grapples with a deadly opioid crisis fueled in part by the prevalence of illicit fentanyl, Zambada’s cartel has reportedly moved thousands of pounds of the dangerous substance into the U.S. over the past decade. Two milligrams of fentanyl is lethal, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Sinaloa cartel, led by Zambada, also shipped “multi-ton quantities” of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana into the U.S., prosecutors said.

Zambada has caused “immeasurable harm to families and communities across our country,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement at the time of Zambada’s arrest.

Hospitalizations and drug overdose deaths aren’t the only fruits of Zambada’s work, prosecutors say. As leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Zambada allegedly hired hitmen to carry out a wide range of violent acts, including assassinations, kidnappings, assaults and torture. These acts, prosecutors say, were driven by the cartel’s need to establish dominance among rival organizations, discipline members and silence witnesses.

Zambada’s arrest was of great interest to U.S. law enforcement and appeared to be the result of a slick ploy by federal investigators. Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of drug lord “El Chapo,” allegedly worked with U.S. authorities to lure Zambada onto a plane under the guise of inspecting land in Mexico, a source told CNN.

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However, conflicting versions of the story have emerged. Zambada’s lawyer said, according to The Paisthat his client had been asked by Lopez to attend a meeting with the governor of Sinaloa, but was instead led into a room where he was abducted, handcuffed, had a bag placed over his head and forced onto a plane bound for Texas. The allegation prompted the Sinaloa governor to say that Zambada’s lawyer was lying. The U.S. government has provided few details about the arrest.

Zambada faces a mandatory life sentence if found guilty. His next court hearing is scheduled for October 31.