Mexican drug trafficker Ismael El Mayo Zambada will change his previous not guilty plea before Judge Brian M. Cogan on Aug. 25 in a New York court, a court notice said Monday.
Thus, by pleading guilty, Mayo Zambada waives the right to appear in a public trial.
The court document does not provide further details about the change of plea by Zambada, who was one of Mexico’s most wanted drug traffickers until his arrest.
In July 2024, Mayo Zambada arrived in El Paso (Texas) on a private flight with Joaquín Guzmán López, one of Joaquín ‘el Chapo’ Guzmán’s sons, in what is suspected to be a deception of Zambada, supposedly part of a deal with the Attorney General’s Office, although the circumstances of that flight were never clarified.
Meanwhile, the hearing of Joaquín Guzmán López – who also faces drug trafficking charges – was postponed by mutual agreement from July 15 to September 15, amid suspicions that he, too, will plead guilty.
This July, Ovidio Guzmán López, another of ‘El Chapo’s’ sons and Joaquín’s brother, pleaded guilty to four drug trafficking-related charges in a Chicago court as part of an undisclosed plea deal with U.S. authorities.
The guilty plea of Mayo Zambada and Guzman Lopez appears to be a change in strategy by the Sinaloa cartel, which wants to avoid public exposure of its crimes like the highly publicized trial of ‘Chapo’ Guzman in New York in 2019.
El Chapo is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado, according to EFE.
For more information, visit QuéOnnda.com.
