Mexican Drug Lord Appears in Court After His Kidnapping to the U.S.

Ismael Zambada García, one of the founders of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, appeared in court in Texas on Thursday, one week after he was kidnapped by his former business partner’s son and flown across the U.S. border into the hands of American agents.

The appearance in Federal District Court in El Paso for an initial hearing was routine as a legal matter, but it also represented a consequential moment in the history of the drug war. It was the first time that Mr. Zambada García, a wily drug lord who had managed to evade capture for decades, was brought before a judge to be held accountable for what prosecutors have described as a nearly 50-year career of drug dealing, murder and corruption.

Last week, that career was cut short when Mr. Zambada García, who is 76 and known as El Mayo, was lured from one of his mountain hide-outs to the Mexican city of Culiacán, which has long served as a stronghold for the Sinaloa cartel.

He believed he was going to help one of the sons of his former partner in crime, the jailed kingpin known as El Chapo, mediate a dispute between two local politicians, according to three people familiar with the matter. Instead, he was ambushed, muscled onto a plane and flown across the border to a small regional airport near El Paso.

Mr. Zambada García, who recently had knee replacement surgery, showed up at the hearing in front of Judge Kathleen Cardone in a wheelchair and wearing a prison jumpsuit. He waived any potential conflicts involving his lawyer, Frank Perez, who is representing other cartel figures. He agreed to return to court in El Paso for a status conference on Sept. 9 and will remain in custody in the meantime.

His abduction last Thursday by El Chapo’s son, Joaquín Guzmán López, was a betrayal worthy of a narco thriller. Security analysts worry that it could set off a bloody war among the rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel. One of those factions is run by El Chapo’s two oldest sons — Iván and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar — while another is led by one of Mr. Zambada García’s sons, Ismael Zambada Sicairos.