Mexican cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is in talks with the US and sticks with the lawyer representing his son.

U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday they were discussing a possible plea deal with Ismael “El Mayo” Zambadathe long-elusive Mexican drug lord who was arrested last summer and whose son could testify against him if he goes to trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Navarro said plea discussions with Zambada, A.J Leader of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel in MexicoIt hasn’t come to fruition yet, but prosecutors want to keep trying. A judge scheduled an April 22 hearing for the update.

Frank Perez, Zambada’s lead lawyer, declined to comment on the discussions.

It’s common for prosecutors and defense attorneys to explore whether they can reach an agreement, and talks don’t necessarily lead anywhere.

Zambada was an attentive and active participant during Wednesday’s hearing, which focused on whether he wanted Perez to continue representing him even while representing a potential government witness in the case — Vicente Zambada, Zambada’s son.

“I don’t want another lawyer,” the father said through a translator in court. “I want him, although it might be a struggle if he represents me and my son.”

The younger Zambada was himself indicted and took a plea deal in the long and sprawling U.S. trials of Sinaloa Cartel figures. He testified for the government in the trial of the cartel’s reputed and now imprisoned co-founder, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Authorities say Ismael Zambada, who worked alongside Guzmán, kept a low profile and was seen as focusing more on smuggling than extreme atrocities, acting as a strategist and dealmaker involved in day-to-day operations.

At Guzmán’s trial, Vicente Zambada recounted how his father and Guzmán ran the cartel together. At one point, he described corrupt Mexican politicians wondering if the syndicate could help them load 100 tons of cocaine into an oil tanker.

“They wanted to know if my father and Chapo could supply that amount of cocaine,” he told the jury in the same Brooklyn federal courthouse where his father is on trial. At another point, Vicente Zambada recalls hearing the leader of a rival drug cartel say he wanted to kill Ismael Zambada and Guzmán to avenge a botched hit.

Prosecutors said in a court document last month that the son may be called to testify against his father, which could pose a conflict of interest for Perez. For example, the interrogation of his son will be hampered by the loyalty he owes to both agents.

Sometimes a defense attorney has a potential conflict of interest regarding their client, and federal courts have outlined steps judges must take to address such situations. These include hiring an independent lawyer to advise defendants as they consider what to do about a potential dispute. Zambada had one at Wednesday’s hearing.

Zambada said he realized there might be problems with Perez representing him and his son — “for example, he would have to hide the information he got from Vicente from me.”

U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan ultimately agreed that Perez could continue the case, noting that Ismael Zambada also has other attorneys who could handle any part of it involving his son.

Law enforcement sought the elder Zambada for years before he did A stunning arrest in July at an airport near El Paso, Texas, after arriving on a private plane with one of Guzmán’s sons, Joaquin Guzmán Lopez. He was also wanted by the American authorities.

Zambada said he was kidnapped in Mexico and was flown to the United States by Guzman Lopez, whose lawyer denies the allegations. Joaquin Guzman Lopez and his brother Ovidio are in negotiations with the U.S. government, their lawyers said this month in a Chicago courtroom.

Following the July arrests and Zambada’s allegations of kidnapping, A terrible fight broke out In Mexico, between a cartel faction loyal to him and another linked to the sons of “Chapito” Guzmán.

The Chapitos used keys, electrocution, and hot pepper Torturing their competitors While some of their victims, alive or dead, were “fed to tigers,” according to the indictment issued by the US Department of Justice.

In recent months, bodies have turned up all over Sinaloa state, often left lying in the streets or in cars with neither Hats on their heads Or pizza slices or boxes with knives attached to them. Pizza and Mexican hats became unofficial symbols of the warring cartel factions, underscoring the brutality of their war.

The series of events also strained relations between Mexico and the United States.

First, the president of Mexico at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the current one President Claudia Sheinbaum He held Washington partly responsible for the bloodshed, saying that American arrests raise problems.

The outgoing US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, responded that it was “incomprehensible” to suggest that the cartel wars were Washington’s fault. He then asserted that the Mexican government had stopped cooperating with Washington in the fight against the cartels and was burying its head in the sand over violence and police corruption.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry responded by expressing “surprise” in an official US Embassy memo at the envoy’s statement.