Mexican drug cartel leader ‘El Mayo’ Zambada makes a court appearance in Texas

EL PASO, Texas — a powerful leader of Mexican drug cartel appeared in a federal court in Texas for the second time on Thursday after being taken into U.S. custody last week.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, 76, used a wheelchair for his hearing before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso. Zambada, the longtime leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, eluded authorities for decades until a plane carrying him and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, landed at an airport near El Paso on July 25. Both men were arrested and are still in prisonThey are accused of several drug offenses in the US.

Thursday’s brief hearing included discussions about whether Zambada would be tried with co-defendants or separately. He is being held without bail and pleaded not guilty during a brief hearing last week, where he also used a wheelchair.

The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 9. His attorneys declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing.

One of his lawyers, Frank Perez, previously claimed that his client was kidnapped by Guzmán López and taken to the US in a private jet. Guzmán López, 38, has pleaded not guilty He was arraigned Tuesday in a federal court in Chicago on drug trafficking and other charges.

Zambada was believed to be more involved in the day-to-day running of the cartel than his more famous and flashy boss, “El Chapo,” who sentenced to life imprisonment in the US in 2019.

Zambada has been charged in some American casesincluding in New York and California. Prosecutors filed a new indictment against him in New York in February, describing him as the “principal leader of the criminal enterprise responsible for importing massive quantities of narcotics into the United States.”

The arrest of Zambada and Guzmán López has fueled theories about how federal authorities accomplished this and prompted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to take the unusual step of to file a public appeal that drug cartels do not fight each other.