BROOKLYN (CN) — Arrested after four decades of heading the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court for drug trafficking-related charges targeting one of the world’s most powerful drug cartel leaders.
Together with Joaquin Guzmán Loera, also known as “El Chapo,” Zambada co-founded the Sinaloa cartel in the late 1980s and built one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in the world. For the past 40 years, the cartel has imported vast quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl from Mexico into the United States.
Authorities arrested Zambada in July at Santa Teresa Airport in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, following a fifth superseding indictment charging him with 17 counts of drug manufacturing and distribution, in addition to engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise.
U.S. District Judge James Cho granted the government’s motion to hold Zambada in detention because he poses “extreme danger” to the community and is a flight risk.
According to prosecutors, if Zambada was released from custody, he could seek to leverage his power over other cartel members and continue operating the cartel’s drug trafficking activities.
“He sat atop the narcotrafficking world for decades through extreme and prolonged violence and rampant corruption of public officials,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro said Friday. “He controlled a veritable army of men ready to carry out violence on his own orders, he employed that power to kill rival cartel members, law enforcement officers, civilians and even members of his own cartel.”
Navarro added that law enforcement officers have been trying to capture Zambada since 2009, and even offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
“A U.S. jail cell is the only thing that will prevent the defendant from committing crimes,” Navarro said.
Over the course of his 40 years of leadership in the Sinaloa cartel, prosecutors say Zambada often used “brutal force and intimidation,” and maintained an arsenal of military-grade weapons to protect himself, his drugs and “his empire,” as outlined in the government’s detention memo.
Prosecutors say he also kept hitmen who carried out assassinations and kidnappings at his behest.
Zambada’s co-defendant “El Chapo” was arrested in 2016 and convicted for his role in the cartel in 2019.
Zambada faces a life sentence in prison if found guilty, because of the continuing criminal enterprise charge which incorporates accusations of his drug trafficking activities and violence involved in the cartel’s operations. He also faces charges of drug manufacturing and distribution conspiracy and a firearms charge.
“Zambada García’s day of reckoning in a U.S. courtroom has arrived and justice will follow,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement.
“It is my hope that the countless family members and friends of victims who succumbed to his cartel’s poisons, and the countless members of law enforcement who fearlessly risked their lives fighting this scourge, should take comfort in knowing that Zambada García will be held accountable for his multitude of crimes,” Peace added.
A hearing has been set for Oct. 31.