“El Mayo” Zambada, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, will appear in court in the US

NEW YORK (AP) – Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the former leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel facing drug-trafficking charges in a U.S. court, appeared for the first time Friday before the judge who above his case.

Zambada, 76, appeared in Brooklyn federal court before District Judge Brian Cogan, who sentenced another cartel boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to life in prison after being found guilty of drug trafficking charges in 2019. .

Prosecutors allege that Zambada and Guzmán founded the Sinaloa cartel, which became a major narcotics manufacturer and smuggler who brought large quantities of drugs into the United States. Zambada has pleaded not guilty.

Zambada, long wanted by US authorities, was detained in July after arriving on a private plane at a Texas airport with Guzmán’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, US authorities said. Guzmán López faces drug trafficking charges in Chicago and has also pleaded not guilty.

Since the arrest of Zambada and Guzmán López in the United States, conflicts have occurred between rival gangs of the cartel in the state of Sinaloa. This week, a building housing a local newspaper in Sinaloa’s capital, Culiacán, was shot at a dozen times. The newspaper said no one was injured.

Meanwhile, US authorities announced charges Thursday against a former Canadian snowboarder who they accuse of running a Mexican drug-trafficking network that allegedly protected the Sinaloa cartel. .

During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors told the judge that some of the evidence in the case against Zambada is confidential and that his defense attorneys must be authorized to access it, according to the Eastern District of New York prosecutor’s office. York.

The judge set Zambada’s next appearance for January 15.

This week in the same court, Cogan sentenced Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former Secretary of Public Security, to more than 38 years in prison for accepting millions of dollars in bribes to protect the Sinaloa cartel.