NEW YORK: The accused Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is expected to make an initial appearance on Friday in the same New York courthouse where fellow Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was convicted five years earlier.
At the 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) hearing before US Magistrate Judge James Cho in Brooklyn, Zambada will likely be asked to enter a plea to the drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges he faces.
Prosecutors will ask that Zambada, who is in his 70s, be jailed pending trial.
“The defendant has devoted his efforts over decades to growing, increasing, and enhancing the power of the Cartel — and his individual power and position in the Cartel after his partner El Chapo was captured,” the US Attorney’s office in Brooklyn wrote in a Thursday court filing.
Zambada was taken into custody on July 25 at a New Mexico airfield, along with one of Guzman’s sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, in a major coup for US law enforcement.
He was then taken to El Paso, Texas, where he pleaded not guilty in federal court to separate drug trafficking charges.
US District Judge Kathleen Cardone last week had him transferred to Brooklyn after the US Department of Justice asked that he face trial there first.
The Brooklyn case began in 2009, and includes allegations related to the trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid fueling an epidemic in the United States.
“El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado. His son has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago.
Shootouts this week in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa kindled fears that an intra-cartel war is about to break out in the wake of Zambada’s arrest.
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Alleged Sinaloa cartel co-founder ‘El Mayo’ to be arraigned in New York
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Alleged Sinaloa cartel co-founder ‘El Mayo’ to be arraigned in New York
- Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada will likely be asked to enter a plea to the drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges he faces
- Zambada was taken into custody on July 25 at a New Mexico airfield, along with one of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s sons
Spain begins 3 days of mourning for deadly train wreck while searchers look for more bodies
ADAMUZ: Spain woke to flags at half staff on Tuesday as the nation began three days of mourning for the victims of the deadly train accident in the country’s south, while emergency crews continue searching for possible bodies.
The official death toll of Sunday’s accident rose to 40 by late Monday. But officials warned that that count may not be definitive, with emergency workers still probing for bodies among what Andalusian regional president Juanma Moreno called “a twisted mass of metal.”
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Spanish national television RTVE late Monday that searchers believe they have found three more bodies still trapped in the wreckage. Those bodies are not included in the official count, the minister said.
The crash took place Sunday at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.
The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of meters (feet) from the crash site, Moreno said.
Officials are continuing to investigate the causes of the incident that Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente has called “strange” since it occurred on a straight line and neither train was speeding.
But Puente said late Monday that officials had found a broken section of track.
“Now we have to determine if that is a cause or a consequence (of the derailment),” Puente told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the accident site near the town of Adamuz on Monday, where he declared three days of mourning with flags lowered on all public buildings and navy vessels. Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia are scheduled to visit on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Civil Guard is collecting DNA samples from family members who fear they have loved ones among the unidentified dead.
The official death toll of Sunday’s accident rose to 40 by late Monday. But officials warned that that count may not be definitive, with emergency workers still probing for bodies among what Andalusian regional president Juanma Moreno called “a twisted mass of metal.”
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told Spanish national television RTVE late Monday that searchers believe they have found three more bodies still trapped in the wreckage. Those bodies are not included in the official count, the minister said.
The crash took place Sunday at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.
The head of the second train, which was carrying nearly 200 passengers, took the brunt of the impact. That collision knocked its first two carriages off the track and sent them plummeting down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of meters (feet) from the crash site, Moreno said.
Officials are continuing to investigate the causes of the incident that Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente has called “strange” since it occurred on a straight line and neither train was speeding.
But Puente said late Monday that officials had found a broken section of track.
“Now we have to determine if that is a cause or a consequence (of the derailment),” Puente told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the accident site near the town of Adamuz on Monday, where he declared three days of mourning with flags lowered on all public buildings and navy vessels. Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia are scheduled to visit on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Civil Guard is collecting DNA samples from family members who fear they have loved ones among the unidentified dead.
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