The judge gives in to the defense of “El Mayo” Zambada and postpones his sentence until April 13

A New York judge on Thursday gave way to the defense of the historic leader of the Sinaloa cartel Ismael Can Zambada, who last Tuesday requested a 90-day extension so he could gather enough information to reduce the sentence. The document broadcast on the networks indicates that the sentence, which the judge had brought forward to January 12, was postponed to April 13. El Mayo pleaded guilty in August to two counts of drug trafficking and continuing a criminal enterprise in a New York court, a move that allowed him to avoid the death penalty and go through a public trial.

The document relies on U.S. regulations to stipulate that Mayo’s defense “must submit a sentencing memorandum and any objections to the PSR.” [informe previo a la sentencia] before March 30, 2026. ” “The government’s response, if there is one, must be submitted by April 6,” reads the brief, signed by Judge Brian M. Cogan, of the Eastern District of New York. His defender Frank Pérez asked the magistrate for a postponement so that he can investigate the evidence. An argument that supports the violence that Sinaloa is experiencing and which, according to the lawyer, makes it difficult to access witnesses who could help contact members of the family and people who provide more information about the case Pérez then explained that several people could barely confirm its availability.

Zambada had never set foot in a prison during his criminal career. Until the end of July 2024, when Joaquín Guzmán López, son of his partner Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán kidnapped him in Culiacán, Sinaloa, to hand him over to American authorities. It was a move that Guzmán López himself, 39, admitted to in a Northern Illinois District Court on December 1 and that also marked his surrender in Washington. After setting a trap for him in a town house, several men tied Mayo up and put him in a truck with which they drove to a nearby airstrip. There they put him on a plane, where they gave him a drink laced with sedatives. Authorities arrested the two criminals in El Paso, Texas.

But this is not Guzmán López’s only revelation to Washington. The capo pleaded guilty that day to two counts of drug trafficking and organized crime for his participation in the Sinaloa cartel. He was the second of the Guzmán clan to surrender to the United States. On July 11, his little brother Ovidio, The mousealso pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. The United States Government welcomed Guzmán López’s statements, but acknowledged that his brothers Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo, for whom they offered $10 million, remain at large. And he tightens the circle: “Two have fallen, two are missing. »

The surrender of Mayo by Chapo’s son quickly sparked a wave of violence in Sinaloa, which led to open warfare between two factions of the historic cartel, the Mayos and the Chapitos. Culiacán, capital of the Mexican state, became the bloody scene of this battle. The internal conflict has also led the historic cartel to deflate its criminal power in the country, a situation that benefits the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which continues to export violence throughout the country.