Mexican cartel boss “El Mayo” Zambada pleads not guilty to drug trafficking and murder charges

• Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, pleaded not guilty on Friday to U.S. charges of drug trafficking and murder.
• Zambada said in a letter that he was kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the United States by Guzmán López, the son of imprisoned Sinaloa co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
• Prosecutors said Zambada had an arsenal of military weapons, a private security force that was almost an army, and a squad of assassins who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a powerful longtime leader of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, pleaded not guilty Friday to U.S. charges of drug trafficking and murder.

During the court hearing, which was accompanied by a Spanish-speaking interpreter, Zambada did not speak except to answer “yes” or “no” to the judge's standard questions about whether he understood various documents and procedures and how he felt – “everything is fine,” he said. His lawyers entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Zambada has been wanted by American law enforcement for more than two decades and has been in U.S. custody since July 25. According to federal authorities, he landed at an airport outside El Paso on a private plane accompanied by another fugitive cartel leader, Joaquín Guzmán López.

MEXICAN PROSECUTORS CONSIDER TREASON CHARGES AFTER THE ARREST OF DRUG BROTHER “EL MAYO” ZAMBADA IN THE U.S.

In a later letter, Zambada said he was forcibly kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the United States by Guzmán López, a son of imprisoned Sinaloa co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho ordered Zambada detained pending trial. His lawyers did not request bail, and U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn asked the judge to remand him in custody.

“He was one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, drug lord in the world,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro. “He was a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel and was at the top of the drug trade for decades.”

Zambada sat quietly and listened to the interpreter. When he left the courtroom after the brief hearing, he appeared to need some help getting up and then walked out slowly but unaided.

There were sketch artists in the small courtroom, but all other journalists could only watch via video surveillance due to a lack of seats.

In court and in a letter to the judge, prosecutors said Zambada had led a massive and violent operation, with an arsenal of military weapons, a private security force that was almost like an army, and a squad of “sicarios” (hitmen) who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture.

His bloody tenure also included ordering the murder of his own nephew a few months ago, prosecutors said.

“A prison cell in the United States is the only thing that can stop the defendant from committing further crimes,” Navarro said.

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Zambada also pleaded not guilty to the charges at an earlier court hearing in Texas.

His surprise arrest has sparked fighting in Mexico between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel, with several people killed in shootings. Schools and businesses in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, have been closed during the fighting. The fighting is believed to be between factions loyal to Zambada and those led by other sons of “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019 for drug offenses and conspiracy.

It remains unclear why Guzmán López turned himself in to U.S. authorities and took Zambada with him. Guzmán López is now awaiting trial in Chicago on a separate drug trafficking charge, where he pleaded not guilty in federal court.