“El Mayo” to NY Prison!
San Antonio, United States, Aug 6 (EFE).-
A Mexican drug trafficker and co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, arrested by United States authorities more than a week ago, will be transferred from Texas to New York to stand trial, his lawyer told EFE on Tuesday night.
Frank Perez said the date for his client Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada’s transfer has yet to be set, but there is a pending charge against him in the Eastern District of New York, where his former partner Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced to life in prison.
Zambada, 76, is currently detained in the border city of El Paso and has already had two initial hearings. He had been on the run for almost 50 years in Mexico and was one of the most wanted criminals in the US under a reward of $15 million.
The accusation in New York is one of at least four Zambada faces in the US. It was updated in February and is the only one that mentions the trafficking of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has plunged the country into a social crisis, becoming the center of the country’s anti-drug policy.
The justice department itself spoke of this charge when it announced the news of the arrest and, as a source close to the case told EFE, the links of the Sinaloa Cartel with the shipment of fentanyl to the US put “more pressure” on the authorities to arrest the drug lord.
However, some details are unclear about Zambada’s arrest. These relate to the possible role played by Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo’s sons, taken to Chicago where he pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
El Mayo’s lawyer said his client “did not come to the US” voluntarily.
“They tied his hands and feet, put a bag over his head and forced him to get on the plane,” Perez told EFE, without naming those responsible but describing it as a “kidnapping.”
According to leaks to several US media, Guzman Lopez deceived El Mayo into going to the US to benefit his brother Ovidio Guzman, extradited to the US in September.
The justice department, which presented the arrest of Zambada and Guzman Lopez as a blow to the drug cartels, has declined to provide further information on this case. EFE
aaca-gac/lds