(CNN Spanish) –– The U.S. Justice Department on Monday reiterated its arguments for Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, to be tried in New York and not in Texas, as requested on Friday by the alleged drug lord’s lawyers.
The Department made the official request for Zambada, 76, to be tried in New York on Aug. 15 to U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of the Western District of Texas, El Paso division, and his defense argued that the request violated the rules.
“Rule 5 requires a person making an arrest within the United States to bring the defendant before a magistrate and to do so ‘without unnecessary delay,’” Zambada’s defense attorneys argued, according to court documents obtained by CNN.
The Department, for its part, responded that such a request had no legal basis, given the multiple charges facing Zambada, who is considered one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world and who claims to be innocent.
“Defendant, however, suggests in opposition that the order of his prosecution is determined solely by the chance that he was arrested in closest proximity to this District and, by logical extension, that any notorious criminal who is charged in multiple districts can dictate the first jurisdiction of his own prosecution by turning himself in or otherwise orchestrating his arrest there (…) No principle of law supports this extraordinary claim,” the DOJ maintains.
Zambada is currently in a jail in the border city of El Paso, Texas, after being detained by U.S. authorities on July 25 at an airport in New Mexico. The Department is requesting that he be tried in Brooklyn, New York, in the same federal court where Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, also considered the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 on drug-related charges.
CNN has reached out to Zambada’s defense attorney, Frank A. Perez, for comment on the Justice Department’s arguments and is awaiting a response.
The next hearing in Zambada’s case is scheduled for September 9 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
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