Judge denies transfer of ‘El Mayo’ Zambada to New York

New York and Washington. A federal judge denied prosecutors’ request to move the legal proceedings against Ismael The May Zambada to New York, and the case will therefore remain, for now, in federal court in El Paso, Texas.

Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone of the federal district court for the Western District of Texas in El Paso issued her ruling on the request of federal prosecutors to transfer the case to the federal court for the Eastern District of New York (where Joaquin was tried). El Chapo Guzmán and more recently Genaro García Luna) explaining the reasons why he was denying that request, among which is that the federal indictment filed in the Texas court, registered in 2012, is older than the New York one. The New York one, by the way, was amended and updated to include fentanyl trafficking charges in February of this year.

He also noted that prosecutors had discretion to use the indictments facing Zambada in five different districts across the United States and opted for Texas when the defendant was arrested on July 25 and brought before the court in El Paso the following day.

Zambada’s defense team, led by attorney Frank A. Perez, has sought to keep his client in El Paso by opposing federal prosecutors’ request to move the case to New York (Brooklyn), and for now, has achieved that goal.

For now, the dispute is only where — in which federal court — the case against Zambada should proceed first, including toward trial, and not whether it will proceed at all. Zambada has his next federal court date in El Paso regarding the proceedings in his case on Sept. 9.