Zambada, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug traffickers, remains in the custody of U.S. authorities in El Paso and This morning he pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering crimes charged by the federal court in Texas.
The case in the southern state, however, It is one of the four open processes that the “Mayo” has in the USA. and it is unclear whether he will be tried there or in another jurisdiction.
In Texas, the prosecution accuses him of More than thirty crimes committed between 2000 and 2012including the trafficking of “thousands” of kilos of cocaine and marijuana to the United States and money laundering.
Zambada’s arrest, one of the biggest blows to drug trafficking in decades, It is also surrounded by uncertainty as to how we got to that point.
“Mayo Zambada” pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. pic.twitter.com/7lewY5mpNH
— Black Book (@Black_Book_) July 26, 2024
The key would be in the role played by Joaquin Guzman Lopezwho will appear next week in a federal court in Chicago (Illinois), more than 2,300 kilometers from where he was arrested, police sources told EFE.
There he will face more than a dozen charges, including drug trafficking, money laundering and being part of a criminal organization.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia pleaded not guilty to all charges during his first appearance in federal court in El Paso, Texashttps://t.co/SjfZWkRz6w
— CNN in Spanish (@CNNEE) July 26, 2024
According to several American media outlets, including The New York Times, Guzmán López deceived the ‘El Mayo’ into coming to the US to benefit his brother Ovidioextradited to the United States in September last year.
The newspaper cites two US police sources, who say that Guzmán told Zambada that the trip was in a private plane. It was intended to show him some land in Mexico..
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Ovidio Guzmán was released from prison last Tuesday, although the United States Embassy in Mexico He said on Friday that the drug trafficker remains “in custody.”
The New York Times also claims that Zambada himself, considered one of Mexico’s most elusive drug traffickers – had never been arrested – He had been negotiating his surrender with the US authorities for three years.without having yet reached an agreement, a fact corroborated by five different sources.
If the betrayal of his partner Guzmán is confirmed, It would not be the first disloyalty that Zambada has suffered: his own son, Vicente Zambada Niebla, extradited to the US in 2010, offered to appear as a witness for the Prosecution in the trial against “El Chapo” Guzmánand gave abundant details of how the Sinaloa Cartel operated, which was run by his father and the sons of “El Chapo,” known as “Los Chapitos.”
Parallel to the intrigues, the president of the USA, Joe Biden, celebrated the arrest of Zambada and Guzmán on Friday as a blow to the leadership of the Sinaloa cartelwhich he described as “one of the deadliest organizations in the world.”
For its part, the Mexican government said that He was not aware of the operation and denied having collaborated with the capture.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador publicly requested information from his American counterparts during a morning press conference.
“The United States Government has to give a complete report, it is not just a few general statements, There must be information, there must be transparency“, the president declared in his morning press conference.
For her part, the Secretary of Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, revealed that Mexico “did not participate” in the operation and that the US Embassy contacted them on Thursday when the arrest of both leaders had already occurred.
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