Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, Co-Founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Arraigned in Brooklyn on International Drug Charges
Defendant Allegedly Led the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera for Decades and Continued for Years Since El Chapo’s Arrest
Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, 76, a citizen of Mexico, was arraigned this morning in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, on 17 counts related to drug trafficking, firearms offenses, and money laundering.This fifth superseding indictment relates to El Mayo’s decades-long leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world and conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl. El Mayo was previously charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, as well as murder conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana manufacture and distribution conspiracy, as well as other drug-related crimes.
El Mayo was ordered detained pending trial and was transferred yesterday to the Eastern District of New York from the Western District of Texas, following his arrest in New Mexico on July 25.
“El Mayo, the co-founder and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, has been charged with overseeing a multi-billion-dollar conspiracy to flood American communities with narcotics, including deadly fentanyl,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that El Mayo built, and for decades led, the Sinaloa Cartel’s network of manufacturers, assassins, traffickers, and money launderers responsible for kidnapping and murdering people in both the United States and Mexico, and importing lethal quantities of fentanyl, heroin, meth, and cocaine into the United States. Now, El Mayo joins the many other Sinaloa Cartel leaders who have faced charges in an American courtroom for the immeasurable harm they have inflicted on families and communities across our country.”
“For years, Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada Garcia and the Sinaloa Cartel he led manufactured illicit fentanyl and peddled it across our country, profiting off of the pain of countless American communities,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Thanks to the dedicated work of brave Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Agents and their federal partners, the United States is disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking operations across the world, ensuring Cartel kingpins like Mr. Zambada Garcia are brought to justice, and keeping Americans safe from the scourge of fentanyl.”
……
17 charges
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ismael-el-mayo-zambada-garcia-co-founder-sinaloa-cartel-arraigned-brooklyn-international