EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Accused Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is scheduled to make his first appearance in a New York City courtroom on Friday morning.
Court documents filed on Thursday show a 10 a.m. initial appearance and arraignment hearing has been set for Zambada on Friday in courtroom 11D-South before U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Cho.
Records show one of his attorneys filed paperwork in connection with the case Thursday in the New York City court.
Zambada, who until recently was being held in a jail in El Paso, Texas, faces a multitude of charges in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. They include running a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to possess narcotics and money laundering.
He was arrested July 25 at a New Mexico airport just across the state line from El Paso after another alleged drug trafficker, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, kidnapped him in Mexico, tied him up and put him on the same airplane where he flew to give himself up to U.S. authorities.
Guzman Lopez was arrested in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, briefly jailed in El Paso and flown to Chicago to face federal drug charges in Illinois.
Prosecutors initially wanted to try Zambada in El Paso, where he also faces a slew of drug and conspiracy charges. But prosecutors and Zambada’s lawyers earlier this month agreed the reputed Sinaloa cartel leader will face the New York charges first.
Border Report reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and to Zambada’s lead attorney for confirmation on whether Zambada remains in El Paso or has already been flown to New York state.
KTSM news partner Telemundo on Thursday caught the drug lord’s transfer to a waiting airplane in El Paso International Airport on video.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed El Mayo is set to appear in court in New York on Friday. The office referred questions about his current location to the U.S. Marshals Service.