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Mexican Drug Lord Is Said to Face Trial in Brooklyn
The decision by the Justice Department will put Ismael Zambada García in the same federal courthouse where his fellow Sinaloa cartel founder, El Chapo, was sentenced to life in prison.
Ismael Zambada García, the Mexican drug lord who was apparently kidnapped by a son of his former partner in crime last month and flown across the border into the hands of U.S. federal agents in Texas, will soon be sent to stand trial in Brooklyn, according to four people familiar with the situation.
The decision by the Justice Department to prosecute Mr. Zambada García, 76, in Brooklyn means that he will face trial in the same federal courthouse where his former ally, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo, was convicted five years ago on drug conspiracy charges and ultimately sentenced to life in prison.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Zambada García, who has evaded capture in his homeland for nearly 50 years, was lured from one of his mountaintop hide-outs to the Mexican city of Culiacán, which has long served as a stronghold for the Sinaloa cartel.
He believed he was going to help one of El Chapo’s sons, Joaquín Guzmán López, mediate a dispute between two local politicians, according to three people familiar with the matter. Instead, he was ambushed, muscled onto a plane and flown across the border to a small regional airport near El Paso, where agents from the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Investigations were waiting for him.
Mr. Guzmán López has been sent to Chicago, where he will be prosecuted along with his brother Ovidio Guzmán López, who was extradited to the United States in September.
Mr. Zambada García, who helped El Chapo found the Sinaloa drug cartel, was first charged in the United States more than two decades ago and is facing indictment not only in Brooklyn, but also in El Paso, Chicago, Washington and San Diego.
While federal prosecutors in El Paso had vehemently sought to keep the case in Texas, the Justice Department decided to send Mr. Zambada García to Brooklyn because they felt the case there was strong and they were concerned about the security issues involved in pursuing charges against a major Mexican drug lord so close to the border, some of the people familiar with the situation said.
The people also noted that some of the prosecutors who oversaw Mr. Guzmán Loera’s trial had agreed to return to prosecute Mr. Zambada García’s case and that the judge who oversaw El Chapo’s case, Brian M. Cogan, was well versed in the issues surrounding the prosecution.
It remains unclear exactly when Mr. Zambada García, who is known as El Mayo, will be transferred from El Paso to Brooklyn. But some law enforcement officials involved in the case said they were excited at the prospect that he would face prosecution by some of the same federal agents and prosecutors who took Mr. Guzmán Loera to trial.
Testimony at that trial suggested that Mr. Zambada García was a central player in payoffs that the Sinaloa cartel made to government officials in Mexico, and the law enforcement officials said that if he were to eventually cooperate with the American authorities, it could prove useful in making inroads on corruption south of the border.
The federal courthouse in Brooklyn is also already outfitted with a unique secure jail that was used to house Mr. Guzmán Loera, who twice escaped from prison in Mexico. That could decrease the security risks of trying Mr. Zambada García.
Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump. More about Alan Feuer
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