A federal judge on Friday said that a powerful Mexican drug cartel leader who was arrested over the summer in the U.S. can be transferred from Texas to New York to face charges there.
The order from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso came after the attorneys for Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, said a day earlier that they no longer opposed the transfer that had been being requested by federal prosecutors.
Zambada, 76, was arrested in July along with Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán,” after they landed in a private plane at an airport near El Paso. They are charged in the U.S. with various drug crimes and remain jailed.
Zambada, who faces charges in multiple locales, has appeared in U.S. federal court in El Paso, where he pleaded not guilty to various drug trafficking charges.
Cardone said in her order that he would complete the proceedings in New York before any further proceedings were held in Texas.