Mexican drug lord 'El Mayo' Zambada Garcia to face trial in same Brooklyn courthouse as 'El Chapo'

NEW YORK — Accused Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, who co-founded the Sinaloa cartel, will be tried in the same Brooklyn courthouse where Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was convicted in 2019.

Two sources familiar with the case against the 76-year-old cartel leader confirmed that Zambada will be headed to Brooklyn Federal Court after his arrest last month in Texas.

Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo, were busted by U.S. authorities after they landed in El Paso on July 25. He was lured onto the small, private plane and believed he was traveling somewhere else, The Associated Press reported.

In a statement to CNN, Zambada’s lawyer, blamed El Chapo’s son for the arrest.

“Joaquin Guzman Lopez forcibly kidnapped my client. He was ambushed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed by six men in military uniforms and Joaquin. His legs were tied, and a black bag was placed over his head,” attorney Frank Perez said in the statement.

“He was then thrown into the back of a pickup truck and taken to a landing strip. There, he was forced onto a plane, his legs tied to the seat by Joaquin, and brought to the U.S. against his will. The only people on the plane were the pilot, Joaquin and my client.”

Zambada and Guzman “have allegedly overseen the trafficking of tens of thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States, along with related violence,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said shortly after his arrest.

The U.S. government was offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Zambada’s capture.

El Chapo was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years in 2019, after a blockbuster trial in Brooklyn. The jury found El Chapo trafficked more than 150 tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana into the U.S. while generating billions in profit and conspiring to commit murder.

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