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. Instead, he was ambushed, muscled onto a plane and flown across the border to a small regional airport near El Paso.

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Persons: Ismael Zambada García, Zambada, Zambada García, El Organizations: Court Locations: Sinaloa, Mexico, Texas, U.S, El Paso, El Mayo, Mexican, Culiacán