Top Mexico cartel leader agrees to be transferred to New York

A powerful Mexican drug cartel leader who has been held in Texas since his arrest in the U.S. over the summer does not oppose being transferred to New York to face charges there, according to a court filing Thursday.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 76, co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, was arrested along with Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán,” after landing at an airport near El Paso on July 25. They are charged in the U.S. with various drug crimes and remain jailed.

Federal prosecutors in Texas asked the court last month to move Zambada to the New York jurisdiction that includes Brooklyn, where the elder Guzmán was convicted in 2019 of drug and conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso had issued an order Wednesday denying the request for a move to New York. But prosecutors filed a motion Thursday saying that Zambada and his attorneys agreed to the move, and a subsequent court filing confirmed that.

The transfer is pending approval from Cardone, who late Thursday afternoon canceled a status conference hearing scheduled Monday in El Paso.

Zambada faces charges in multiple locales. So far he’s appeared in U.S. federal court in El Paso, where he pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking charges.

If prosecutors get their wish, the case against Zambada in Texas would proceed after the one in New York.

In New York, Zambada is charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder conspiracy, drug offenses and other crimes.

Business City News Strange twist in cartel leaders’ saga

In an unexpected twist, last month Mexican prosecutors said they were bringing charges against Guzmán for apparently kidnapping Zambada. The younger Guzmán apparently intended to turn himself in to U.S. authorities, but may have brought Zambada along as a prize to sweeten any plea deal.

Federal prosecutors issued a statement saying “an arrest warrant has been prepared” against the Guzmán for kidnapping.

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

That clause was apparently motivated by the abduction of a Mexican doctor wanted for allegedly participating in the 1985 torture and killing of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Kiki Camarena.

Nowhere in the statement 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, that 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 indictment by the U.S. Justice Department, the Chapitos and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution and hot chiles to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers.”

Authorities said last month the murders of at least 10 people in Sinaloa appear to be linked to infighting in the dominant drug smuggling cartel there, confirming fears of repercussions from the detention of Zambada and Guzmán.

El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel’s founder, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses.

Last year, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message to Mexico’s president, alleging that he has been subjected to “psychological torment” in prison.

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• Drug Cartels
• El Chapo
• Cartel