NEW YORK — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a powerful leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, pleaded not guilty Friday in a U.S. drug trafficking case that accuses him of participating in murder plots and ordering torture.
Attending a court hearing through a Spanish interpreter, Zambada answered yes or no to a magistrate’s routine questions about his understanding of various documents and procedures. When asked how he felt, Zambada replied, “Very good, very good.”
His lawyers have pleaded not guilty on his behalf.
Outside court, Zambada’s attorney, Frank Perez, said his client has no plans to strike a deal with the government and the lawyer expects the case to go to trial.
“It’s a complex case,” he said.
Wanted by U.S. law enforcement for more than two decades, Zambada has been in U.S. custody since July 25, when he landed on a private plane at an airport near El Paso, Texas, along with another fugitive cartel leader, Joaquín Guzmán López, federal authorities said.
Zambada later said in a letter that he had been kidnapped in Mexico and brought to the United States by Guzmán López, a son of imprisoned Sinaloa co-founder Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Zambada’s lawyer did not provide further details on the allegations Friday.
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Judge James Cho ordered Zambada detained until trial. His lawyers did not request bail, and U.S. prosecutors asked the judge to remand him in custody.
“He was one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, drug kingpins in the world,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro. “He co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel and was at the top of the drug trafficking world for decades.”
Zambada, 76, traveled in a wheelchair to a Texas court appearance last month. Police officers held him in place Friday as he walked to a federal courtroom in Brooklyn. He appeared to accept help getting out of a chair after the brief hearing, then walked out slowly but unassisted.
Perez said Friday after the trial that Zambada was healthy and “in good spirits.”
The cartoonists were present in the small courtroom, but other journalists could only observe the proceedings through closed-circuit cameras due to a lack of seats.
In court and in a letter to the judge, prosecutors said Zambada presided over a vast and violent operation, with an arsenal of military-grade weapons, a private security force that almost resembled an army, and a corps of “sicarios,” or hit men, who carried out assassinations, kidnappings and torture.
Prosecutors say his bloody mandate led him to order the murder of his own nephew just months ago.
“A prison cell in the United States is the only thing that will prevent the defendant from committing further crimes,” Navarro said.
Zambada also pleaded not guilty to the charges in a previous court appearance in Texas. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 31.
Authorities say Zambada and “El Chapo” Guzmán built the Sinaloa Cartel from a regional syndicate to a massive manufacturer and trafficker of cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs into the United States. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has described defeating the cartel as one of the agency’s top operational priorities.
Zambada is considered the group’s strategist and negotiator, and a less flamboyant figure than Guzmán. Zambada had never been behind bars before his arrest in July.
“His day of reckoning in an American court has arrived, and justice will follow,” Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement Friday.
Zambada’s arrest sparked clashes in Mexico between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel. Shootouts left several people dead. Schools and businesses in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, closed due to the fighting. The fighting reportedly pitted factions loyal to Zambada against those led by other sons of “El Chapo” Guzmán, who was convicted of drug trafficking and conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019.
It is not yet clear why Guzmán López surrendered to U.S. authorities and took Zambada with him. Guzmán López is awaiting trial on another drug trafficking charge in Chicago, where he has pleaded not guilty.
Associated Press video journalist David R. Martin contributed to this report.
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