Mexican drug trafficker Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for co-founding and leading the Sinaloa cartel.
US District Judge Brian Cogan stated that “the almost unimaginable amount of drugs attributable to him and the number of murders that we can document is enough to justify Congress’s decision to make this a mandatory life sentence.”
Zambada, 76, ranks among the most prominent Mexican drug traffickers ever sentenced in an American court, following Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s life sentence handed down in 2019.
Prosecutors say Zambada ordered torture and plotted murders, including the killing of his own nephew, while the cartel flooded the United States with cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other drugs.
He pleaded guilty to charges that included engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and racketeering conspiracy, acknowledging culpability for 85 underlying crimes.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against the aging cartel leader.
Before sentencing, Zambada addressed the court, saying “I grew up in an environment where violence and crime seemed normal, but now I know that’s no excuse.”
He continued: “There comes a time when every person must take responsibility for their decisions. I didn’t, and many people paid the price.”
Zambada also apologized “for the harm I caused and for the example I set,” urging future generations to “choose a different path.”
His arrest came in July 2024 after he alleged he was kidnapped in Mexico and forcibly flown to Texas, where he was taken into US custody.
Zambada was arrested alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo’s sons, who has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges but has yet to be sentenced.
His former partner, “El Chapo,” is already serving a life sentence at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, where he was sent following his 2019 conviction.
Together, Zambada and Guzman built the Sinaloa cartel into one of the most powerful and prolific drug trafficking organizations ever to operate on the global stage.
The Sinaloa cartel is among six Mexican drug gangs that US President Donald Trump has designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Zambada’s arrest triggered a violent splintering within the cartel, setting his loyalists against backers of Guzman’s sons, a faction known as the Chapitos, or “little Chapos.”
