Mexican cartel leader with Arizona ties appears in court on drug trafficking case

PHOENIX/NEW YORK (AZFamily/AP) — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel facing drug trafficking charges in a U.S. court, appeared for the first time Friday before the judge presiding over his trial.

The 76-year-old appeared at a status conference in Brooklyn federal court before District Court Judge Brian Cogan, who sentenced fellow judge Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to life in prison behind bars after being convicted of drug trafficking in 2019.

Prosecutors say “El Mayo” and Guzmán transformed the Sinaloa Cartel into a massive manufacturer and trafficker of illicit narcotics, bringing enormous quantities of drugs into the United States. He pleaded not guilty.

“El Mayo’s” son, Serafín Zambada Ortiz, was arrested at the Nogales border crossing in 2013 and released from prison in 2018 in connection with his drug trafficking case.

Serafin accepted a plea deal admitting to purchasing more than 100 kilos of cocaine and 1,000 kilos of marijuana with the intention of transporting them for sale in California, local San Diego media reported in 2014.

Serafin Zambada, also known as “Sera,” is not known for his involvement in drug trafficking in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, where he lives and where his family is from, according to family and friends.

Since “El Mayo” and Guzmán López were arrested in the United States, their rival cartel factions have been clashing in the state of Sinaloa.

This week, a dozen shots were fired at a building housing a local newspaper in the capital, Culiacan. The newspaper said no one was injured.

Separately, U.S. authorities recently announced charges against a former Canadian Olympic snowboarder who they say runs a drug trafficking network out of Mexico and is protected by the Sinaloa cartel.

At a status conference, prosecutors told the judge that some of the evidence in the case against “El Mayo” was classified and that his defense attorneys would need clearance, according to the prosecutor’s office American for the Eastern District of New York.

The judge set “El Mayo’s” next court appearance for January 15.

Long wanted by U.S. law enforcement, “El Mayo” was arrested in July after arriving on a private plane at a Texas airport with Guzmán’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, according to federal authorities.

Guzmán López faces drug trafficking charges in Chicago and has also pleaded not guilty.

Earlier in the week, in the same courthouse, Cogan sentenced Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former public security secretary, to more than 38 years in prison for accepting millions of dollars in bribes for protect the Sinaloa Cartel.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a news report? Send it’s ours here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.