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A Brooklyn federal judge on Monday scheduled an Aug. 25 change
of plea hearing for Zambada, a longtime leader of Mexico’s
Sinaloa cartel. The development comes two weeks after federal
prosecutors said they wouldn't seek the death penalty against
him.
Zambada, 77, pleaded not guilty last year to drug trafficking
and related charges, including gun and money laundering
offenses.
Under Zambada and co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s
leadership, prosecutors allege, the Sinaloa cartel evolved from
a regional player into the largest drug trafficking organization
in the world.
Judge Brian M. Cogan’s order on Monday didn't provide details
about Zambada’s guilty plea and didn't list the charges he’s
expected to plead guilty to. The same judge sentenced Guzmán to
life behind bars after he was convicted on drug trafficking
charges in 2019.
Messages seeking comment were left for Zambada’s lawyers. A
spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn declined
to comment.
Zambada was arrested in Texas last year after what he has
described as a kidnapping in Mexico.
Sought by U.S. law enforcement for more than two decades, he was
taken into custody after arriving in a private plane at a Texas
airport with Guzmán’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López. Guzmán López
has pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in
Chicago; his brother, Ovidio Guzmán López, pleaded guilty last
month.
According to prosecutors, Zambada presided over a vast and
violent operation, with an arsenal of military-grade weapons, a
private security force akin to an army, and a corps of “sicarios,”
or hitmen, who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and
torture. Just months before his arrest, he ordered the murder of
his own nephew, prosecutors said.
On Aug. 5, prosecutors told Cogan in a letter that Attorney
General Pam Bondi had directed them not to pursue the death
penalty for Zambada.
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Associated Press reporter Jennifer Peltz contributed to this
report.
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