MEXICO CITY, Feb 25 — Mexican Attorney-General Alejandro Gertz said on Tuesday that the United States (US) 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 US and arrested there last year.
Gertz noted that late last year, the US 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 US 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 US 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 US if the arrangement spares him from the death penalty.
— Reuters
