( Spanish) – Ismael “el Mayo” Zambada arrived this Friday for his second hearing in New York and the first before Judge Brian Cogan, the same one who this Wednesday sentenced the former Secretary of Security of Mexico, Genaro García Luna, and Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán in 2019, dressed as a prisoner – a khaki suit and an orange shirt – and without handcuffs that prevented him from making any type of movement. Unlike his first hearing in September, this Friday the co-founder and alleged leader of the Sinaloa Cartel looked better and did not need help to sit or get out of his seat, although he was again seen limping.
In the barely 10 minutes that the hearing lasted, the Mexican drug trafficker was expressionless. He sat in court to listen to the entire process through an interpreter and exchanged a few words with his lawyer, Frank Pérez. At the end, he shook the defender’s hand, they spoke briefly and he left.
After his unexpected capture on July 25, Zambada, 76, is being held without bail on 17 counts of drug trafficking and homicide to which was added an additional charge of distribution of fentanyl, prosecutors in the case said at the hearing. this Friday. El Mayo has said that he was “ambushed” and taken against his will to the United States.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Zambada’s lawyer declined to comment to the media.
The co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The minimum penalty that will be imposed against him if he is found guilty will be life imprisonment, and this Friday Judge Cogan asked the Prosecutor’s Office to define whether he will request the death penalty against him.
El Mayo arrived in September at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a prison that has been described as “hell on earth” and where the capo is under special administrative measures, which are imposed to prisoners considered high profile and dangerous who need special security conditions.
The case, complex in itself, will have an additional element in the next hearing, on January 15, 2025, since the Prosecutor’s Office asked the judge to remove lawyer Frank Pérez as Mayo’s lawyer, arguing a possible conflict of interest.
The prosecution noted to the judge that Pérez also represented his son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, alias Vicentillo, who was a cooperating witness in the conspiracy trial of Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán. Vicentillo was sentenced in 2019 to 15 years in prison on conspiracy and drug trafficking charges, but was released in 2021.
Zambada Niebla was one of the first jailed witnesses to testify against Guzmán for sentencing, according to spokespeople for the U.S. attorneys’ offices in New York and Illinois.
During the trial against Chapo, Mayo’s son stated that he had worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to help locate his father. He stated that he was calling him on his cell phone and the DEA was trying to track Mayo Zambada’s location.
This means that Zambada Niebla could testify against his own father.
Judge Cogan said he would make the decision at the next hearing and that he will wait for the Prosecutor’s Office’s decision on whether to call Vicentillo to testify, as well as an explanation as to why they believe there would be a conflict of interest due to the fact that Pérez is the legal representative of father and mother. son.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, violence stemming from the capture of the Mayo Zambada has left more than 190 dead since September 9, according to figures from the state’s State Public Security Council.
Culiacán, the state capital, has registered clashes and blockades in recent weeks that have left a wave of insecurity that does not cease and has forced the suspension of classes and affects the general population.
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