Kathleen Cardone, a judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas in El Paso, determined that Sinaloa drug lord Ismael Zambada García, “El Mayo,” be transferred to Brooklyn.
In that American city, the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel will be tried by Judge Brian M. Cogan, in the Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York.
During a court filing, federal prosecutors in El Paso said Zambada Garcia would be prosecuted on the charges he faces in the Eastern District of New York, before returning to face separate charges in Texas.
Federal prosecutors said in their filing that they had not yet received a response from Frank Perez, “El Mayo’s” defense attorney, regarding his opinion on his client’s imminent transfer to New York, which had no definite date.
The charges Zambada Garcia faces in Brooklyn, filed on February 15, 2024, included conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl. While in Texas, he faces drug trafficking and racketeering charges filed in 2012, stemming from alleged conspiracies to ship cocaine and marijuana into the United States.
Perez, defense attorney for “El Mayo,” filed a request on August 8 before Judge Brian M. Cogan in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York to represent the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The petition was filed by the plaintiff in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Perez said he was filing the petition to be able to “argue and judge this case in whole or in part as lead counsel for Ismael Zambada García.”
He also argued that he had no disciplinary matters against him in any state or U.S. court. He also explained that he was a litigator in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, in El Paso, and that he had not been arrested for any crime or censured or suspended in any court.
The “pro hac vice” motion grants a U.S. attorney limited license to practice in a jurisdiction where he is not licensed. Perez confirmed on August 6 that “El Mayo” would be transferred from El Paso, Texas, to Brooklyn, where he would be tried by Judge Cogan in the Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York.
“The date on which the drug lord will be sent to New York has not yet been set, but it is known that there is already a pending charge against ‘El Mayo’ in the Eastern District of New York, the same district where his former partner Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison,” he added at the time.
The New York Times had also reported that based on four sources and reported, in a text signed by reporter Alan Feuer, that Zambada García would be tried in the same Federal Court where Joaquín Guzmán Loera, “El Chapo”, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, on February 12 and July 17, 2019, respectively.
“El Mayo” was first charged in the United States more than two decades ago and faced other accusations, not only in Brooklyn, but also in El Paso, Chicago, Illinois, Washington DC, and San Diego, California.
Sources told the NYT that the Justice Department decided to send “El Mayo” to Brooklyn because they felt the case there was strong and were concerned about the security issues involved in filing charges against the Sinaloa drug lord so close to the Mexican border.
In addition, sources told the newspaper that some of the prosecutors who oversaw the “El Chapo” trial had agreed to return to prosecute the “El Mayo” case and that the judge who oversaw the Guzmán Loera case was well versed in the issues related to the case.
The aforementioned media outlet detailed that the Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York also had a secure prison, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York (MCC New York), which was used to house “El Chapo,” which could reduce the security risks of judging “El Mayo.”
