(New York) The co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, pleaded not guilty Friday to international drug trafficking during his appearance before a federal court in New York, an AFP journalist noted.
Dressed in prison clothes and visibly physically diminished, Ismael Zambada, 76, pleaded “not guilty” through his lawyer to the charges of criminal conspiracy for international trafficking of cocaine and fentanyl that were read to him by the prosecutor. He needed help to get up from his chair and leave the courtroom.
The next hearing has been scheduled for October 31 and the defendant will await trial in prison.
Ismael Zambada had accepted a week ago his transfer to New York from Texas where he had been detained since his incredible arrest at the end of July.
He has already pleaded not guilty in Texas to charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder in the southern US state.
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada co-founded the powerful and murderous Sinaloa cartel with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in the 1990s and had eluded Mexican and U.S. drug enforcement his entire life, despite a $15 million reward offered by the United States.
He was finally arrested, under unclear circumstances, near the US border city of El Paso, Texas, on July 25, after landing from Mexico on a private plane with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of “El Chapo”.
The septuagenarian said he was trapped by Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ambushed, kidnapped and taken by force onto the plane.