Mexican cartel boss “El Mayo” pleads not guilty to murder and drug conspiracy

Zambada, co-founder and leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, will remain in prison pending trial after being arrested in New Mexico in July, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said.

In a letter, prosecutors asked a judge to request Zambada's continued detention because he is “one of the world's most notorious and dangerous drug traffickers,” noting that the 76-year-old drug lord has been indicted more than a dozen times in the United States over the past two decades.

In the most recent case, Zambada was indicted in New York in February on 17 counts, including conspiracy to commit murder, operating a criminal organization and several counts related to the distribution and manufacture of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.

Under Zambada's leadership, the Sinaloa cartel has become a multi-billion dollar drug trafficking enterprise that smuggles the “overwhelming majority” of its illegal drugs into the United States, prosecutors say in the indictment.

As the country grapples with a deadly opioid crisis caused in part by the spread of illegal fentanyl, Zambada's cartel is believed to have smuggled thousands of kilograms of the dangerous product into the U.S. over the past decade. Two milligrams of fentanyl is lethal, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Under Zambada's leadership, the Sinaloa cartel also smuggled “tons” of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana into the United States, prosecutors said.

Zambada has “caused immeasurable harm to families and communities across our country,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement at the time of Zambada's arrest.

Hospitalizations and deaths from drug overdoses are not the only consequences of Zambada's work, prosecutors said. As leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Zambada is alleged to have hired hitmen to carry out many violent acts, including murders, kidnappings, robberies and torture. These acts, prosecutors said, were motivated by the cartel's need to establish its dominance among rival organizations, discipline members and silence witnesses.

Zambada's arrest was of great importance to U.S. law enforcement and appears to have been the result of a sophisticated ploy by federal investigators. Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of drug lord “El Chapo,” reportedly cooperated with U.S. authorities to lure Zambada onto a plane under the pretense that he was going to inspect land in Mexico, a source told CNN.

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However, conflicting versions of the story have emerged. Zambada's lawyer said The Paisthat his client had been invited by Lopez to meet with the governor of Sinaloa, but was instead led into a room where he was kidnapped, handcuffed and dragged onto a plane bound for Texas. This claim prompted the governor of Sinaloa to claim that Zambada's lawyer was lying. The U.S. government has released few details about the arrest.

If convicted, Zambada faces life in prison. His next court date is scheduled for October 31.