El Mayo is eligible for the death penalty: Judge Cogan

David Brooks and Jim Cason

Correspondents

La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, October 19, 2024, p. 3

New York and Washington, Ismael May Zambada appeared before federal Judge Brian Cogan for a brief preliminary hearing on the 17 charges against him – including one that is potentially eligible for the death penalty, although that is yet to be determined.

In the same court in the Eastern District of New York where they were first tried, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán and more recently Genaro García Luna, and before the same judge in both cases, Zambada, with a beard and mustache and in a light brown prisoner’s uniform, listened without showing any emotion to the details about the beginning of his case in preparation for a possible trial .

The next preparatory hearing was scheduled for January 15, 2025, just the beginning of what will be a long process still before a trial – if there is one.

Among the main charges are continuously managing a criminal organization between 1989 and 2024, which carries a sentence of life imprisonment, and accusations of drug trafficking, carrying illicit firearms and money laundering, each of which carry sentences of 10 to 30 years in prison. The charges filed in this case were expanded to include trafficking in fentanyl, as well as to include that these activities carried out by the defendant continued until the middle of this year.

Judge Cogan and prosecutors noted that the case is eligible for the death penalty – indicating that criminal drug trafficking activity led by Zambada led to multiple deaths in the United States – but it has not yet been determined whether prosecutors will pursue that punishment.

Another issue addressed is whether there is a potential conflict of interest for Zambada’s lead attorney, Frank Perez, since he has also represented the defendant’s son, Vicente, who is a cooperating witness for the United States government. The conflict would arise in the event that in a possible trial, prosecutors called Vicente Zambada to testify against his father. This matter was not resolved yesterday and is pending for the next hearing.

In the same room where 48 hours earlier the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico Genaro García Luna was sentenced to just over 38 years in prison for his corrupt links with the Sinaloa cartel, the judge and prosecutors indicated that a part of the evidence to be presented against Zambada was accumulated in that case and at the trial of El Chapo Guzmán carried out in this same headquarters.

The indictment against Zambada includes what federal prosecutors had previously asserted: that the defendant has enjoyed full impunity at the highest levels through paying bribes to government officials and public security officialsand controlled corrupt officers and agents, who protected their workers and drug loads as they were transported through Mexico to the United States.

May He arrived at his appointment, limping slightly as he took a few steps towards his seat at the defense table, where he gave the impression of calm under the surveillance of five US Marshall Service agents. The court expanded security measures, including a second registration point for attendees at the entrance to the courtroom – there is one at the entrance to the building for all visitors.

Zambada appeared for the first time in court in New York on September 13, after being transferred from Texas, where his judicial process in the United States began. He has been in the hands of US federal authorities since July 25, when he arrived on a private plane along with Joaquín Guzmán López, son of El Chapoin still mysterious circumstances (May accused in a letter that was kidnapped by El Chapito).

These first steps do not confirm that there will be a trial in the end, since the possibility of some negotiation by the accused with the Department of Justice and its prosecutors in order to reach a cooperation agreement and thereby avoid a trial cannot be ruled out.