A Mexican drug lord arrested in the United States last month will stand trial in Brooklyn after a judge approved a prosecutor’s request to transfer the case from Texas to New York.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 76, co-founder of Mexico’s brutal Sinaloa drug cartel, was detained on July 25 along with Joaquin Guzmán López, the son of its imprisoned leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Officials said the men were lured onto the plane with the belief they were going to look at real estate in Mexico.
Instead, the plane landed in El Paso, Texas, where Homeland Security agents were waiting to arrest the men on drug trafficking charges related to the deadly distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine, the Justice Department said.
“The old man was tricked,” a law enforcement source told the Los Angeles Times.
But Zambada disputes the allegations that he was tricked, saying he was ambushed at a meeting in Culiacan, Mexico, and put on a three-hour flight to the United States.
“Instead, I was kidnapped and forcibly brought to the United States against my will,” Zambada said from prison, speaking with his lawyer. Obtained by CBS News.
Zambada faces charges in multiple U.S. jurisdictions, including the Brooklyn federal court where El Chapo was convicted of numerous drug and conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison in 2019.
Charges against the Brooklyn ringleader include operating a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to murder, drug offenses and other crimes.
The judge’s order states that Zambada is scheduled to make his first court appearance “without further delay,” but the date of his appearance was not immediately available.
A spokesman for the Eastern District of New York said the office could not comment on the case.
