Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, has pleaded not responsible to drug trafficking, homicide and different expenses in a New York courtroom, months after his dramatic arrest and switch into United States custody.
Zambada entered the plea to the 17 felony counts he faces, which additionally embrace cash laundering and weapons expenses, at a listening to on Friday in Brooklyn, New York.
US Justice of the Peace Choose James Cho ordered that Zambada, 76, be jailed pending trial.
Prosecutor Francisco Navarro known as Zambada “one of the vital, if not probably the most, highly effective narcotics kingpins on the planet”.
“A United States jail cell is the one factor that may forestall the defendant from committing additional crimes and guarantee his return to courtroom,” he advised the listening to.
Sought by legislation enforcement for greater than 20 years, Zambada has been in US custody since July 25, when he landed in a private plane at an airport exterior El Paso, Texas, in line with federal authorities.
He was within the firm of one other fugitive cartel chief, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who’s the son of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Guzman Lopez is at the moment awaiting trial on a separate indictment in Chicago. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and different expenses in a federal courtroom in late July.
Questions have swirled round Zambada’s seize, which additionally spurred fears of more drug-related violence in Mexico and heightened tensions between the Mexican and US governments.
Final month, Zambada’s lawyer stated Guzman Lopez and 6 males in army uniforms “forcibly kidnapped” his shopper close to the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan and flew him to the US towards his will.
However the Guzman household lawyer has denied the kidnapping cost, as a substitute calling it a voluntary give up after prolonged negotiations.
Zambada additionally described his seize as an “abduction” in an announcement launched by way of his lawyer in mid-August. “I used to be ambushed,” he stated.
Specialists, nevertheless, say the style of his arrival within the US may have little bearing on his felony case.
If convicted on all expenses, Zambada faces a minimal sentence of life in jail and could be eligible for the dying penalty.
He additionally pleaded not responsible to separate drug trafficking and different expenses in Texas.
In a letter to the decide, US prosecutors known as him “one of many world’s most infamous and harmful drug traffickers”.
“The defendant maintained an arsenal of military-grade weapons to guard his individual, his medication, and his empire,” they wrote.
“His closely armed personal safety forces had been used as his private bodyguards and as safety for drug shipments all through Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and past,” the letter continued.
“Furthermore, he maintained a steady of ‘sicarios,’ or hitmen, who carried out ugly assassinations and kidnappings aimed toward sustaining self-discipline inside his group, defending towards challenges from rivals, and silencing those that would cooperate with legislation enforcement.”
A surge in criminal violence, a lot of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has seen greater than 450,000 individuals murdered in Mexico since 2006.
Specialists say Zambada’s arrest has coincided with a spike in violence in Culiacan, as completely different factions within the Sinaloa cartel compete to fill the facility vacuum.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador briefly addressed the violence in his morning press convention on Friday, calling on the cartel to “keep away from additional lack of life”.
The opponents “must search for different methods” to deal with their variations, Lopez Obrador stated, so “they don’t hurt harmless individuals”.
“Additionally they ought to care for themselves and their households,” he added.
