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The drug trafficker Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada already appears with a registration number in the Metropolitan Correctional Center Brooklynin New York, where he appeared at his first hearing on Friday, September 13.

On the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website, Zambada appears under the number 27102-511. Among the specifications is that he is 74 years old and a white man.

The prison is the same one where the former Secretary of Public Security is being held, Genaro Garcia Luna, who in 2023 was found guilty of several drug trafficking charges, although he is still awaiting trial final judgment.

Where is ‘El Mayo’ Zambada?

The detention center where ‘El Mayo’ Zambada is being held is located at 29 80th Street in Brooklyn, New York. There are at least 1,218 prisoners there, and its population is made up of men and women.

The prison was opened in the 1990s and was intended to house people with pending trials. It has a capacity of up to 2,000 people.

‘The May’ He was transferred on Thursday from Texas where he remained under arrest and appeared on Friday in the same court where five years ago a life sentence was handed down to his former partner. “El Chapo”.

Drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges brought against him in a New York court, which include conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking, membership in a criminal enterprise and possession of weapons.

In this, his first appearance in New York, Zambada limited himself to answering with monosyllables “yes” or “no” to the questions of investigating judge James R. Cho, who read him the 17 charges he faces and which could cost him life in prison.

Although New York law dictates that the trial must begin within 70 days of the defendant’s first appearance, the trial judge James R. Cho instruction made an exception in this case due to its great complexity and the abundance of documents for the investigation, decreeing that this period start on October 31.

What is ‘El Mayo’ sick with?

Another of the big questions was the state of health of the drug lord who, dressed in jeans and a light-coloured short-sleeved shirt, showed signs of having trouble walking, to the point of having to be helped to get up from his seat after today’s hearing.

The Sinaloa Cartel co-founder, noticeably pale, remained motionless in his seat flanked by five security agents throughout the session. He only swayed from left to right in his seat on a couple of occasions and at one point put his hand to his mouth as if to bite his nails.

“The Lord Zambada “He has been, and may continue to be, one of the largest and most dangerous drug traffickers in the world who, through the drug trade and the violence of his criminal enterprise, participated in bribery, torture and murder of civilians and members of rival cartels,” said Francisco Navarro, prosecutor of the federal court of Brookyn (New York), about Zambada.

Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone approved the transfer of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to a New York court; currently, the case of the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel is in El Paso, Texas, where he was arrested last July.

In her writing, the judge details that “The May” Zambada must complete his proceedings in the Eastern District Court of New York before any further proceedings are heard in El Paso, Texas.

“Therefore, the Government requests that the Court suspend the provisions of the Speedy Trial Act and excuse the defendant from appearing for any hearing in this case while the defendant remains in the New York court“, he noted.

He also stated that Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada did not oppose his transfer to the New York court.

The Eastern District Court of New York It is located in Brooklyn and it was there that the Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmanin 2019, and the former Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna, in 2023.

Federal prosecutors in Texas asked a court last month to transfer Zambada to the New York jurisdiction that includes Brooklyn.

‘El Mayo’ agrees to be transferred to a New York court

He co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, currently in prison in El Paso, Texas, has announced that he has agreed to be transferred to a New York court to complete pre-trial proceedings on several drug trafficking charges.

In a document submitted Thursday by his lawyers to the Western District Court of Texas-El Paso, Zambada “does not oppose” – he uses that expression four times – his transfer to New York, a request expressed by the Prosecutor’s Office and which was opposed on Wednesday by Judge Kathleen Cardone.

He suggests that he will not request provisional release, since he “does not oppose remaining in the custody” of federal authorities in the Eastern District of New York until all proceedings are concluded.

For all these reasons, he asks the Texas court to postpone the hearing scheduled for next Monday while his eventual transfer to New York is resolved, the city where his partner was already tried. Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and the main drug trafficking leaders, both Mexican and from other countries.

Who is ‘El Mayo’ Zambada?

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 76, is currently detained in the border city of El Paso (Texas) and has already had two initial hearings before the courts.

He had been a fugitive in Mexico for more than 40 years and until his arrest on July 25 in El Paso, he was one of the most wanted criminals in the United States with a reward of 15 million dollars.

The New York indictment is one of at least four he faces in the United States, but it was updated in February of this year and is the only one that mentions trafficking of fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that has generated a serious crisis of deaths from overdose in the United States and has become the center of the country’s anti-drug policy.