Ismael El Mayo Zambada: Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to appear in New York court | International

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García is scheduled to appear Friday morning in the Eastern District Court of New York (EDNY), the same courtroom where notorious Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Mexico's former public security minister Genaro García Luna were tried and sentenced. In court documents, the U.S. Attorney's Office said the 76-year-old – who co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with El Chapo – posed “a danger to the community” and “a flight risk,” and requested pretrial detention for the defendant and increased security measures.

Zambada has been held in the Texas border city of El Paso since his surprise arrest on July 25. The District Court of West Texas approved the drug lord's extradition last week, but the U.S. has kept the details of his extradition secret since then. The hearing, scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, is the first indication that the El Paso case will continue in Brooklyn, New York, where he faces charges of fentanyl trafficking, organized crime, weapons possession and money laundering.

The New York case dates back to 2009 but was expanded in February to include fentanyl trafficking charges, covering a period from the late 1980s to this year. The Texas case, on the other hand, filed in 2012, focuses on crimes committed more than a decade ago, when El Mayo and El Chapo – as leaders of the Sinaloa cartel – began a war against the Juarez cartel to control the drug smuggling route between Chihuahua and Texas, one of the most important and lucrative.

If indicted, the evidence and testimony presented by U.S. authorities would paint a much more current picture of the Sinaloa cartel: its activities in nearly 50 countries, its rivalry with other criminal groups, its business model and its alliances with politicians and law enforcement agencies. “The defendant has spent decades seeking to expand, increase and strengthen the power of the cartel – and his personal power and position in the cartel after the arrest of his partner El Chapo,” the prosecutor's arrest report on Zambada states.

The document argues that the trials of Guzmán and García Luna – Mexico's drug czar during the Felipe Calderón administration (2006-2012) – set a precedent for what would come to light about El Mayo's criminal empire and how those revelations would be received in Mexico. “Numerous witnesses have testified, including at the trials of El Chapo and the corrupt former Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna, that corruption at all levels was necessary for the defendant's criminal enterprise to function so effectively and on such a large scale: from the local police officers who escorted the drugs through Mexico to the corrupt officials who informed the cartel of military actions, thwarted arrest operations, and advised the cartel on cases and investigations against it,” the detention memo states.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said the criminal organization paid millions of dollars in bribes and “corrupt payments” under Zambada's leadership. The document describes El Mayo as one of the most violent and powerful criminals in the world. According to the arrest record, he had a team of hitmen and “maintained an arsenal of military-grade weapons to protect himself, his drugs, and his empire.” Zambada is also accused of ordering numerous kidnappings and murders. “The EDNY indictment charges him with conspiracy to murder cartel members, law enforcement officials, and members of rival cartels as part of his ongoing criminal enterprise,” the document states.

Prosecutors also said they would seek a sentence against El Mayo. “The defendant faces either the death penalty or life imprisonment for continuing criminal association, as well as a minimum sentence of 30 years for weapons possession and several minimum sentences of 10 years for other drug offenses,” the arrest report states. In addition to the fentanyl trafficking charges filed last February, Zambada faces 14 counts of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine trafficking.

El Mayo appeared in a wheelchair and pleaded not guilty to all charges in Texas. After successfully defeating an initial attempt to transfer him to New York, the drug lord's defense team reversed course and agreed to try their client in another state. Brian Cogan – the same judge who presided over the trials of El Chapo and García Luna – will be responsible for determining the course of action in the Zambada trial and will also preside over the trial proceedings.

However, Friday's hearing will take place before Judge James R. Cho, who is serving as the investigating judge. While El Mayo's extradition to New York has been announced in the United States, two factions of the Sinaloa cartel – Los Mayos and Los Chapitos, led by El Chapo's sons – have been fighting each other in Mexico since last Monday, with at least nine people killed in the clashes.

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