Mexico's drug world comes to Brooklyn: El Mayo and García Luna will appear in the same New York court a day apart | US

Two known drug traffickers will attend hearings in the Eastern District Court of New York. A last-minute calendar adjustment means Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Genaro García Luna will appear in the same Brooklyn courthouse a day apart. García Luna – Mexico's former public security minister who was convicted of accepting bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel – will be sentenced on October 16. While Zambada – the 76-year-old co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel – will have his first hearing before Judge Cogan on October 17th.

Judge Cogan on Wednesday agreed to a request from the attorney general's office to move up Zambada's hearing, originally scheduled for Oct. 31, due to a scheduling conflict. The same judge will also pronounce the sentence against García Luna, who faces a sentence of 20 years to life in prison for three drug trafficking offenses, one count of organized crime and another of making false statements. The sentencing hearing for the former drug czar – the highest-ranking former Mexican official to face trial in the United States – was scheduled for Oct. 9, but Cogan asked for an additional week to determine how many years he will give the former boss Mexico's federal police should give.

A jury found García Luna guilty in February last year, but his sentencing was delayed several times. The former official was accused of collaborating with the Sinaloa cartel for more than two decades, beginning when he became head of the Federal Investigation Agency during the administration of Vicente Fox (2000-2006) and continuing for several years after he left public service stopped. Both García Luna and El Mayo are currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, the only federal prison in New York that has a capacity of over 1,200 inmates.

Cogan also presided over the trial and sentencing of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in 2019. El Chapo was held at the MDC in Brooklyn from his extradition in 2017 until his sentencing, as defendants remain there while they await trial. The case against El Mayo in New York is based on the same allegations for which Guzmán, his former employee, was on trial. The case has been active for over a decade, and in February of this year a grand jury indicted Zambada on charges of trafficking fentanyl, a drug central to Washington's recent anti-drug efforts. This is one of the main reasons why US authorities insisted that he be tried in this court rather than in the Western District Court of Texas in El Paso, where he was held for seven weeks after his arrest on July 25.

Despite the similarities between García Luna and Zambada, their trials are at significantly different stages. García Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019 and his trial was completed early last year after delays in the US justice system due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He is currently in the final stages of his trial and his legal team has said they will appeal the verdict once it is handed down. The outcome of García Luna's conviction could be crucial to possible negotiations with U.S. authorities should he decide to cooperate and provide information with other targets of the U.S. justice system. During his five years on the other side of the border, García Luna has always maintained that he did not make any agreements to cooperate with the prosecutor's office.

On the other hand, Zambada is just beginning his path to an eventual trial. He pleaded not guilty at his first hearing on September 13 in Brooklyn, where he appeared before a magistrate. The Sinaloa Cartel co-founder, who was placed under tight security that same week, faces 17 charges including drug trafficking, organized crime, illegal possession of firearms and money laundering.

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