FILE PHOTO: Accused Mexican former drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada appears in Brooklyn federal court, New York, U.S, October 18, 2024, in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz said Tuesday that the U.S. government has not yet responded to Mexico's request to extradite accused senior drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada back to Mexico, after he was flown to the U.S. and arrested there last year.
Gertz noted that late last year the U.S. government confirmed it had received the Mexican government's extradition request for Zambada, the co-founder of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel along with jailed kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Zambada was taken into custody last July in the United States at a New Mexico airfield near El Paso, Texas, along with one of Guzman's sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, in what was then hailed as a major coup for U.S. law enforcement.
In September, Zambada pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen criminal charges in a New York court, including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges. He has been jailed pending trial.
Zambada's lawyer told Reuters on Monday that he is willing to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors in the United States if the arrangement spares him from the death penalty.
(Reporting by Raul Cortes; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
