Mayo Zambada pled not guilty in New York

The sentencing hearing of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada has been postponed until April 2026 at the request of his lawyer, according to a new report.

His lawyer, Frank Perez, introduced a request to postpone the hearing for 90 days to prepare a "memorandum of sentence" for his client, Infobae detailed. Judge Brian Cogan has already accepted the request.

Perez claimed that "El Mayo" can't be sentenced due to lack of "important" judicial documents and ongoing violence in Mexico.

He was apprehended by U.S. authorities in July 2024 after being ambushed and taken by Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of "El Chapo" Guzman.

In his own plea bargain, Guzman Lopez said he ordered a group of armed men drug Zambada to take him into the U.S.

The action was aimed at showing willingness to cooperate with Washington, according to Andrew Erskine, an attorney representing the U.S. He added that the U.S. does not sanction such behavior and Guzman Lopez wouldn't get leniency because of it.

Without naming him, Guzman Lopez claimed that he and others entered a room where Zambada was waiting to meet with him through a window, seized him, put a bag over his head and put him on a plane. There he was zip tied, given sedatives and taken to an airport in New Mexico, near the border with Texas. Zambada's account was similar. He has also pleaded guilty to federal charges related to violent drug trafficking he led for years alongside El Chapo for the Sinaloa Cartel.

While giving his own account, Zambada said he was lured to the ranch under the pretext of mediating a political dispute involving Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and Héctor Melesio Cuén Ojeda, a former rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and founder of the Sinaloense Party.

"As I walked toward the meeting area... I saw Joaquín Guzmán López, whom I've known since he was a child, and he gestured for me to follow him. Trusting the nature of the meeting and the people involved, I followed without hesitation." Zambada says he was then ambushed.

"They took me to another dark room, and as soon as I set foot in it, they ambushed me. A group of men assaulted me, threw me to the ground, and put a dark hood over my head. They tied me up and handcuffed me, then forced me into the back of a pickup truck," he wrote, pointing to lasting injuries in his back, knee, and wrists.

He was then forced to board a private plane, and after a 3-hour flight, arrived in El Paso, Texas, where he was taken by U.S. federal agents. Perhaps more explosive was Zambada's demand to reveal the full truth behind the killing of Cuén, the former rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and a prominent political operator.

The cartel boss, long considered untouchable, is now awaiting sentencing in New York after pleading guilty to racketeering and drug trafficking charges.

Originally published on Latin Times