EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office is doubling down on wanting Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to face drug charges in New York first, even though the reputed Sinaloa cartel leader was arrested on July 25 in the El Paso region.
On Monday, federal prosecutors filed a response in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas saying Zambada’s request from last Friday to freeze the transfer and try him in El Paso first has no basis.
“The defendant has offered no plausible basis, and there is no plausible basis, to avoid such a presentment” in the Eastern District of New York, the U.S. Attorney’s Aug. 26 filing states. “Nor is the defendant correct that the government is required to articulate any reason for the presentment on one warrant or another where there are numerous to choose from. The indictment and arrest warrant speak for themselves and are reason enough.”
Zambada has been indicted on drug charges in West Texas, in Brooklyn, in Chicago and in California. Federal prosecutors earlier this month made a motion to transfer the case to the Eastern District of New York citing security concerns in El Paso. Zambada stands to be tried first in the same courthouse that his reputed former partner Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was tried and convicted.
Zambada’s legal team argued in a Friday filing that making their client face charges in New York first would violate his right to a speedy trial in Texas.
“The government’s motion does not address […] the primary requirement that the defendant’s be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay,” Zambada’s lawyers motion states. “The prosecution completely ignores the fundamental ‘without unnecessary delay requirement …”
Prosecutors also have not made the case why an appearance in New York should take precedence over the West Texas proceedings, which have already begun, the motion states.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office asserts in its Aug. 26 response that Zambada wasn’t even arrested in West Texas. He was taken into custody at the Dona Aña (New Mexico) County International Jetport. He was allegedly abducted by another Sinaloa cartel leader, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who had a pilot fly both of them from Mexico to New Mexico. Guzman Lopez was also taken into custody on July 25 and is now facing charges in Chicago.
“The defendant suggests that the order of his prosecution is determined exclusively by the happenstance that he was arrested in the closest proximity to this district (West Texas) and, by logical extension, that any notorious criminal who is indicted in multiple districts can dictate the first venue of his own prosecution [….] No principle of law supports this extraordinary contention,” the federal government’s filing argues.
Both parties are asking U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone to rule on their motion.
Border Report on Monday reached out to one of Zambada’s attorneys for comment and is awaiting a response.