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‘El Mayo’ faces life in prison, forfeits $15 billion after plea

In a photo provided by the State Department, Ismael Zambada García, known as El Mayo, has been pursued by the U.S. government for years. The July 25, 2024 arrest of two top leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel came after what initial accounts suggest was a dramatic betrayal that saw one of them lure the other under false pretenses onto a plane that delivered them both into the hands of American law enforcement.  (U.S. State Dept.)
By Patricia Hurtado Bloomberg
In a photo provided by the State Department, Ismael Zambada García, known as El Mayo, has been pursued by the U.S. government for years. The July 25, 2024 arrest of two top leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel came after what initial accounts suggest was a dramatic betrayal that saw one of them lure the other under false pretenses onto a plane that delivered them both into the hands of American law enforcement.  (U.S. State Dept.)

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the co-founder of Mexico’s deadly Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking charges in a case brought by US authorities in New York and Chicago.

Zambada entered his plea Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, to one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and one count of racketeering conspiracy. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison and agreed to forfeit $15 billion as the proceeds of his crimes.

Zambada founded the violent drug organization with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was tried and convicted in the same courthouse in 2019. “During my more than 50 years in this activity, I created a large criminal enterprise that I directed and led which became known as the Sinaloa Cartel,” Zambada said during a description of his crimes before US District Court Judge Brian Cogan that took more than five minutes Monday.

The guilty plea comes a year after Zambada was extradited to the US from Mexico to face drug-trafficking, firearms and money laundering charges, which could have carried the death penalty. Earlier this month, US prosecutors said they would not seek capital punishment for Zambada.

Zambada and Guzman led a violent network that kidnapped and murdered people in both the US and Mexico and imported vast quantities of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamines and cocaine into the US. Zambada is accused of helping lead the group from 1989 until 2024.

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Bribed Police, Politicians

Zambada, 75, said the cartel paid bribes to further its success, “to policemen, military members and politicians.”

“The organization I led promoted corruption in my own country,” he said. “The payments of these bribes goes back to the beginning when I was a young man starting out and continued throughout the years of the cartel. I recognize the great harm that illegal drugs have done to the people of the United States and in Mexico.

Prosecutor Francisco Navarro said in a letter to the court that Zambada, who eluded capture for decades, was arrested at a local airport in New Mexico and later transferred to El Paso to face charges there. News reports said at the time he was lured to the US from Mexico by El Chapo’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who is also facing US charges.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said the US did not properly inform Mexican authorities before Zambada’s arrest. Her government has blamed the move for leading to ongoing violence in the state of Sinaloa, as factions of the cartel wage bloody battles against one another.

Sheinbaum was asked today at a press conference if she had any concerns about what Zambada might say about Mexico as part of his court case, and she said that she wasn’t worried, and that anything he said would have to be verified.

Another son of El Chapo, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, separately pleaded guilty in July to US charges including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and conspiring to distribute drugs. He agreed to cooperate with US authorities and testify for the government in “any criminal, civil or administrative proceeding.”

During his plea, Guzman Lopez admitted he and his three brothers - known as “the Chapitos” - assumed leadership of the cartel after their father’s arrest.